VERS.TYOF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

VFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  D  EGO 


3  1822016123127 


ew/ 


LADY  JANE  GREY 

<AND  HER  TIMES 
By     I.     A.     TAYLOR 


WITH    SEVENTEEN    ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW   YORK 
D.   APPLETON   AND   COMPANY 

1908 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

The  condition  of  Europe  and  England  —  Retrospect  —  Re- 
ligious Affairs  —  A  reign  of  terror  —  Cranmer  in  danger  — 
Katherine  Howard  ........  i 

CHAPTER   II 

1546 

Katherine  Parr  —  Relations  with  Thomas  Seymour  —  Married 
to  Henry  VIII.  —  Parties  in  court  and  country  —  Kathe- 
rine's  position  —  Prince  Edward  .  .  .  .  .13 

CHAPTER  HI 

1546 

The  Marquis  of  Dorset  and  his  family  —  Bradgate  Park  —  Lady 
Jane  Grey  —  Her  relations  with  her  cousins  —  Mary  Tudor 
—  Protestantism  at  Whitehall  —  Religious  persecution  .  24 

CHAPTER   IV 


Anne    Askew  —  Her    trial    and    execution  —  Katherine    Parr's 

danger  —  Plot  against  her  —  Her  escape    ....       36 

CHAPTER   V 

1546 
The  King  dying  —  The  Earl  of  Surrey  —  His  career  and  his  fate  — 

The  Duke  of  Norfolk's  escape  —  Death  of  the  King   .         .       48 

CHAPTER   VI 

1547 

Triumph  of  the  new  men  —  Somerset  made  Protector  —  Corona- 
tion of  Edward  VI.  —  Measures  of  ecclesiastical  reform  — 
The  Seymour  brothers  —  Lady  Jane  Grey  entrusted  to  the 
Admiral  —  The  Admiral  and  Elizabeth  —  His  marriage  to 
Katherine  .  60 


iv  Contents 

CHAPTER  vn 
1547—1548 

PAGE 

Katherine  Parr's  unhappy  married  life  —  Dissensions  between 
the  Seymour  brothers  —  The  King  and  his  uncles  —  The 
Admiral  and  Princess  Elizabeth  —  Birth  of  Katherine's 
child,  and  her  death  .......  go 

CHAPTER  VHI 


Lady  Jane's  temporary  return  to  her  father  —  He  surrenders  her 

again  to  the  Admiral  —  The  terms  of  the  bargain       .         .     100 

CHAPTER   IX 

1548-1549 

Seymour  and  the  Princess  Elizabeth  —  His  courtship  —  He  is 
sent  to  the  Tower  —  Elizabeth's  examinations  and  ad- 
missions —  The  execution  of  the  Lord  Admiral  .  .108 

CHAPTER  X 

1549—1550 

The  Protector's  position  —  Disaffection  in  the  country  —  Its 
causes  —  The  Duke's  arrogance  —  Warwick  his  rival  —  The 
success  of  his  opponents  —  Placed  in  the  Tower,  but  re- 
leased —  St.  George's  Day  at  Court  .....  126 

CHAPTER  XI 

i549—i55i 

Lady  Jane  Grey  at  home  —  Visit  from  Roger  Ascham  —  The 
German  divines  —  Position  of  Lady  Jane  in  the  theo- 
logical world  .........  139 

CHAPTER   XII 

1551—1552 

An  anxious  tutor  —  Somerset's  final  fall  —  The  charges  against 
him  —  His  guilt  or  innocence  —  His  trial  and  condemna- 
tion —  The  King's  indifference  —  Christmas  at  Greenwich 
—  The  Duke's  execution  .  .  .  .  .  .  .154 

CHAPTER   XIII 

1552 

Northumberland  and  the  King  —  Edward's  illness  —  Lady  Jane 
and  Mary  —  Mary  refused  permission  to  practise  her  re- 
ligion —  The  Emperor  intervenes  .....  169 


Contents  v 

CHAPTER  xrv 
1552 

PAGE 

Lady  Jane's  correspondence  with  Bullinger — Illness  of  the 
Duchess  of  Suffolk — Haddon's  difficulties — Ridley's  visit 
to  Princess  Mary — The  English  Reformers — Edward 
fatally  ill — Lady  Jane's  character  and  position  .  .178 

CHAPTER   XV 
1553 

The  King  dying — Noailles  in  England — Lady  Jane  married 
to  Guilford  Dudley — Edward's  will — Opposition  of  the 
law  officers — They  yield — The  King's  death  .  .  .  193 

CHAPTER   XVI 

1553 

After  King  Edward's  death — Results  to  Lady  Jane  Grey — 
Northumberland's  schemes — Mary's  escape — Scene  at 
Sion  House — Lady  Jane  brought  to  the  Tower — Quarrel 
with  her  husband — Her  proclamation  as  Queen  .  .210 

CHAPTER  XVII 
1553 

Lady  Jane  as  Queen — Mary  asserts  her  claims — The  English 
envoys  at  Brussels — Mary's  popularity — Northumberland 
leaves  London — His  farewells  ......  225 

CHAPTER   XVIII 

1553 

Turn  of  the  tide — Reaction  in  Mary's  favour  in  the  Council — 
Suffolk  yields — Mary  proclaimed  in  London — Lady  Jane's 
deposition — She  returns  to  Sion  House  .  .  .  .237 

CHAPTER   XIX 

1553 

Northumberland  at  bay — His  capitulation — Meeting  with 
Arundel,  and  arrest — Lady  Jane  a  prisoner — Mary  and 
Elizabeth — Mary's  visit  to  the  Tower — London — Mary's 
policy 247 

CHAPTER   XX 

1553 

Trial  and  condemnation  of  Northumberland — His  recanta- 
tion— Final  scenes — Lady  Jane's  fate  in  the  balances — A 
conversation  with  her 259 


vi  Contents 

CHAPTER  XXI 

1553 

MM 
Mary's  marriage  in  question — Pole  and  Courtenay — Foreign 

suitors — The  Prince  of  Spain  proposed  to  her — Elizabeth's 
attitude — Lady  Jane's  letter  to  Hardinge — The  coronation 
— Cranmer  in  the  Tower — Lady  Jane  attainted — Letter  to 
her  father — Sentence  of  death — The  Spanish  match  .  275 

CHAPTER  XXII 

1553—1554 

Discontent  at  the  Spanish  match — Insurrections  in  the  country 
— Courtenay  and  Elizabeth — Suffolk  a  rebel — General 
failure  of  the  insurgents — Wyatt's  success — Marches  to 
London — Mary's  conduct — Apprehensions  in  London,  and 
at  the  palace — The  fight — Wyatt  a  prisoner — Taken  to 
the  Tower 289 

CHAPTER   XXIH 

1554 

Lady  Jane  and  her  husband  doomed — Her  dispute  with 
Feckenham — Gardiner's  sermon — Farewell  messages — 
— Last  hours — Guilford  Dudley's  execution — Lady  Jane's 
death 3" 

INDEX 327 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

LADY  JANE  GREY  (Photogravure) — Frontispiece. 

FACING  PAGE 

HENRY  VIII 6 

KATHERINE   HOWARD 12 

HENRY   VIII.    AND   HIS   THREE   CHILDREN 2O 

PRINCE   EDWARD,    AFTERWARDS   EDWARD   VI 32 

HENRY   HOWARD,    EARL   OF   SURREY 54 

KATHERINE   PARR 82 

WILLIAM,   LORD   PAGET,    K.G 132 

EDWARD   VI 136 

LADY   JANE   GREY 142 

ARCHBISHOP   CRANMER 152 

EDWARD   SEYMOUR,    DUKE   OF   SOMERSET,    K.G.             .            .            .  168 
PRINCESS   MARY,    AT  THE   AGE   OF  TWENTY-EIGHT     .           .           .184 

LADY   JANE   GREY 2OO 

QUEEN   ELIZABETH 254 

THE  TOWER  OF  LONDON 284 

HENRY   GREY,    DUKE   OF   SUFFOLK,    K.G 294 


LADY  JANE   GREY   AND 
HER    TIMES 


CHAPTER    I 

The  condition  of  Europe  and  England — Retrospect — Religious 
Affairs — A  reign  of  terror — Cranmer  in  danger — Katherine 
Howard. 

IN  1546  it  must  have  been  evident  to  most 
observers  that  the  life  of  the  man  who  had  for 
thirty-five  years  been  England's  ruler  and  tyrant — 
of  whom  Raleigh  affirmed  that  if  all  the  patterns 
of  a  merciless  Prince  had  been  lost  in  the  world  they 
might  have  been  found  in  this  one  King — was  not 
likely  to  be  prolonged  ;  and  though  it  had  been 
made  penal  to  foretell  the  death  of  the  sovereign, 
men  must  have  been  secretly  looking  on  to  the 
future  with  anxious  eyes. 

Of  all  the  descendants  of  Henry  VII.  only  one 
was  male,  the  little  Prince  Edward,  and  in  case 
of  his  death  the  succession  would  lie  between  his 
two  sisters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  branded  by  succes- 
sive Acts  of  Parliament  with  illegitimacy,  the  infant 


2  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Queen  of  Scotland,  whose  claims  were  consistently 
ignored,  and  the  daughters  and  grand-daughters  of 
Henry  VII. 's  younger  daughter,  Mary  Tudor. 

The  royal  blood  was  to  prove,  to  more  than  one 
of  these,  a  fatal  heritage.  To  Mary  Stuart  it  was 
to  bring  captivity  and  death,  and  by  reason  of  it 
Lady  Jane  Grey  was  to  be  forced  to  play  the  part 
of  heroine  in  one  of  the  most  tragic  episodes  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

The  latter  part  of  Henry  VIII. 's  reign  had  been 
eventful  at  home  and  abroad.  In  Europe  the  three- 
cornered  struggle  between  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 
Francis  of  France,  and  Henry  had  been  passing 
through  various  phases  and  vicissitudes,  each  of  the 
wrestlers  bidding  for  the  support  of  a  second  of  the 
trio,  to  the  detriment  of  the  third.  New  combina- 
tions were  constantly  formed  as  the  kaleidoscope  was 
turned  ;  promises  were  lavishly  made,  to  be  broken 
without  a  scruple  whensoever  their  breach  might 
prove  conducive  to  personal  advantage.  Religion, 
dragged  into  the  political  arena,  was  used  as  a  party 
war-cry,  and  employed  as  a  weapon  for  the  de- 
struction of  public  and  private  foes. 

At  home,  England  lay  at  the  mercy  of  a  King  who 
was  a  law  to  himself  and  supreme  arbiter  of  the  des- 
tinies of  his  subjects.  Only  obscurity,  and  not  always 
that,  could  ensure  a  man's  safety,  or  prevent  him 
from  falling  a  prey  to  the  jealousy  or  hate  of  those 
amongst  his  enemies  who  had  for  the  moment  the  ear 


The  Religious  Struggle  3 

of  the  sovereign.  Pre-eminence  in  rank,  or  power, 
or  intellect,  was  enough  to  give  the  possessor  of  the 
distinction  an  uneasy  sense  that  he  was  marked  out 
for  destruction,  that  envy  and  malice  were  lying 
in  wait  to  seize  an  opportunity  to  denounce  him  to 
the  weak  despot  upon  whose  vanity  and  cowardice 
the  adroit  could  play  at  will.  Every  year  added 
its  tale  to  the  long  list  of  victims  who  had  met  their 
end  upon  the  scaffold. 

For  fifteen  years,  moreover,  the  country  had  been 
delivered  over  to  the  struggle  carried  on  in  the 
name  of  religion.  In  1531  the  King  had  responded 
to  the  refusal  of  the  Pope  to  sanction  his  divorce 
from  Katherine  of  Aragon  by  repudiating  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  See  and  the  assertion  of  his 
own  supremacy  in  matters  spiritual  as  well  as 
temporal.  Three  years  later  Parliament,  servile  and 
subservient  as  Parliaments  were  wont  to  be  under 
the  Tudor  Kings,  had  formally  endorsed  and  con- 
firmed the  revolt. 

"  The  third  day  of  November,"  recorded  the 
chronicler,  "  the  King's  Highness  held  the  high 
Court  of  Parliament,  in  the  which  was  concluded 
and  made  many  and  sundry  good,  wholesome,  and 
godly  statutes,  but  among  all  one  special  statute 
which  authorised  the  King's  Highness  to  be  supreme 
head  of  the  Church  of  England,  by  which  the 
Pope  .  .  .  was  utterly  abolished  out  of  this  realm."  l 

1  Hall's  Chronicle. 


4  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Since  then  another  punishable  crime  was  added 
to  those,  already  none  too  few,  for  which  a  man 
was  liable  to  lose  his  head,  and  the  following  year 
saw  the  death  upon  the  scaffold  of  Fisher  and 
of  More.  The  execution  of  Anne  Boleyn,  by 
whom  the  match  had,  in  some  sort,  been  set  to  the 
mine,  came  next,  but  the  step  taken  by  the  King 
was  not  to  be  retraced  with  the  absence  of  the 
motive  which  had  prompted  it  ;  and  Catholics  and 
Protestants  alike  had  continued  to  suffer  at  the 
hands  of  an  autocrat  who  chastised  at  will  those  who 
wandered  from  the  path  he  pointed  out,  and  refused 
to  model  their  creed  upon  the  prescribed  pattern. 

In  1 546  the  "  Act  to  abolish  Diversity  of 
Opinion  " — called  more  familiarly  the  Bloody  Statute, 
and  designed  to  conform  the  faith  of  the  nation 
to  that  of  the  King — had  been  in  force  for  seven 
years,  a  standing  menace  to  those  persons,  in  high 
or  low  place,  who,  encouraged  by  the  King's  defiance 
of  Rome,  had  been  emboldened  to  adopt  the  tenets 
of  the  German  Protestants.  Henry  had  opened 
the  floodgates  ;  he  desired  to  keep  out  the  flood. 
The  Six  Articles  of  the  Statute  categorically  re- 
affirmed the  principal  doctrines  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  made  their  denial  a  legal  offence.  On 
the  other  hand  the  refusal  to  admit  the  royal 
supremacy  in  matters  spiritual  was  no  less  penal. 
A  reign  of  terror  was  the  result. 

"  Is   thy  servant   a  dog  ? "     The  time-honoured 


Henry  VIII/s  Later  Years  5 

question  might  have  risen  to  the  King's  lips  in  the 
days,  not  devoid  of  a  brighter  promise,  of  his  youth, 
had  the  veil  covering  the  future  been  withdrawn. 
"  We  mark  curiously,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "  the 
regular  deterioration  of  Henry's  character  as  the 
only  checks  upon  his  action  were  removed,  and 
he  progressively  defied  traditional  authority  and 
established  standards  of  conduct  without  disaster  to 
himself."  The  Church  had  proved  powerless  to 
punish  a  defiance  dictated  by  passion  and  perpetuated 
by  vanity  and  cupidity  ;  Parliaments  had  cringed  to 
him  in  matters  religious  or  political,  courtiers  and 
sycophants  had  flattered,  until  "  there  was  no  power 
on  earth  to  hold  in  check  the  devil  in  the  breast 
of  Henry  Tudor."  l 

Such  was  the  condition  of  England.  Old  barriers 
had  been  thrown  down  ;  new  had  not  acquired 
strength  ;  in  the  struggle  for  freedom  men  had 
cast  aside  moral  restraint.  Life  was  so  lightly 
esteemed,  and  death  invested  with  so  little  tragic 
importance,  that  a  man  of  the  position  and  standing 
of  Latimer,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  when  appointed 
to  preach  on  the  occasion  of  the  burning  of  a 
priest,  could  treat  the  matter  with  a  flippant  levity 
scarcely  credible  at  a  later  day. 

"  If  it  be  your  pleasure,  as  it  is,"  he  wrote  to 
Cromwell,  "  that  I  shall  play  the  fool  after  my 
customary  manner  when  Forest  shall  suffer,  I 
1  Martin  Hume,  The  Wives  of  Henry  VIII.  t  p.  447. 


6  Lady  Jane  Grey 

would  that  my  stage  stood  near  unto  Forest"  (so 
that  the  victim  might  benefit  by  his  arguments).  .  . 
"  If  he  would  yet  with  heart  return  to  his  abjuration, 
I  would  wish  his  pardon,  such  is  my  foolishness."  l 

Yet  there  was  another  side  to  the  picture ; 
here  and  there,  amidst  the  din  of  battle  and  the 
confusion  of  tongues,  the  voice  of  genuine  con- 
viction was  heard  ;  and  men  and  women  were  ready, 
at  the  bidding  of  conscience,  to  give  up  their  lives 
in  passionate  loyalty  to  an  ancient  faith  or  to  a 
new  ideal.  "  And  the  thirtieth  day  of  the  same 
month,"  June  1540,  runs  an  entry  in  a  contemporary 
chronicle,  "  was  Dr.  Barnes,  Jerome,  and  Garrard, 
drawn  from  the  Tower  to  Smithfield,  and  there 
burned  for  their  heresies.  And  that  same  day  also 
was  drawn  from  the  Tower  with  them  Doctor 
Powell,  with  two  other  priests,  and  there  was  a 
gallows  set  up  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Gate,  and 
there  were  hanged,  headed,  and  quartered  that  same 
day  " — the  offence  of  these  last  being  the  denial 
of  the  King's  supremacy,  as  that  of  the  first  had 
been  adherence  to  Protestant  doctrines.2 

No  one  was  safe.  The  year  1540  had  seen  the 
fall  of  Cromwell,  the  Minister  of  State.  "  Cranmer 
and  Cromwell,"  wrote  the  French  ambassador,  "  do 
not  know  where  they  are."  3  Cromwell  at  least  was 


1  Ellis's  Original  Letters,  Series  III.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  203. 
1  Grey  Friar's  Chronicle  (Camden  Society),  p.  44. 
3  Martin  Hume,  Wives  of  Henry  VI  11.,  p.  344. 


From  a  photo  by  AV.  Mansell  &  Co.  after  a  painting  by  Holbein. 

HENRY   VIII. 


Cranmer  in  Danger  7 

not  to  wait  long  for  the  certainty.  For  years  all- 
powerful  in  the  Council,  he  was  now  to  fall  a  victim 
to  jealous  hate  and  the  credulity  of  the  master  he 
had  served.  At  his  imprisonment  "  many  lamented, 
but  more  rejoiced,  ...  for  they  banquetted  and 
triumphed  together  that  night,  many  wishing  that 
day  had  been  seven  years  before  ;  and  some,  fearing 
that  he  should  escape  although  he  were  imprisoned, 
could  not  be  merry."  l  They  need  not  have  feared 
the  King's  clemency.  The  minister  had  been 
arrested  on  June  10.  On  July  28  he  was  executed 
on  Tower  Hill. 

If  Cromwell,  in  spite  of  his  services  to  the  Crown, 
in  spite  of  the  need  Henry  had  of  men  of  his 
ability,  was  not  secure,  who  could  call  themselves 
safe  ?  Even  Cranmer,  the  King's  special  friend 
though  he  was,  must  have  felt  misgivings.  A 
married  man,  with  children,  he  was  implicitly  con- 
demned by  one  of  the  Six  Articles  of  the  Bloody 
Statute,  enjoining  celibacy  on  the  clergy,  and  was 
besides  well  known  to  hold  Protestant  views.  His 
embittered  enemy,  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
vehement  in  his  Catholicism  though  pandering  to 
the  King  on  the  subject  of  the  royal  supremacy, 
was  minister  ;  and  his  fickle  master  might  throw 
the  Archbishop  at  any  moment  to  the  wolves. 

One  narrow  escape  he  had  already  had,  when 
in  1544  a  determined  attempt  had  been  hazarded 
1  Holinshed, 


8  Lady  Jane  Grey 

to  oust  him  from  his  position  of  trust  and  to  convict 
him  of  his  errors,  and  the  party  adverse  to  him  in 
the  Council  had  accused  the  Primate  "  most 
grievously  "  to  the  King  of  heresy.  It  was  a  bold 
stroke,  for  it  was  known  that  Henry  loved  him, 
and  the  triumph  of  his  foes  was  the  greater  when 
they  received  the  royal  permission  to  commit  the 
Lord  Archbishop  to  the  Tower  on  the  following 
day,  and  to  cause  him  to  undergo  an  examination  on 
matters  of  doctrine  and  faith.  So  far  all  had  gone 
according  to  their  hopes,  and  his  enemies  augured 
well  of  the  result.  But  that  night,  at  eleven 
o'clock,  when  Cranmer,  in  ignorance  of  the  plot 
against  him,  was  in  bed,  he  received  a  summons  to 
attend  the  King,  whom  he  found  in  the  gallery  at 
Whitehall,  and  who  made  him  acquainted  with  the 
action  of  the  Council,  together  with  his  own  consent 
that  an  examination  should  take  place. 

"  Whether  I  have  done  well  or  no,  what  say  you, 
my  lord  ?  "  asked  Henry  in  conclusion. 

Cranmer  answered  warily.  Knowing  his  master, 
and  his  jealousy  of  being  supposed  to  connive  at 
heresy,  save  on  the  one  question  of  the  Pope's  autho- 
rity, he  cannot  have  failed  to  recognise  the  gravity  of 
the  situation.  He  put,  however,  a  good  face  upon 
it.  The  King,  he  said,  would  see  that  he  had  a  fair 
trial — "  was  indifferently  heard."  His  bearing  was 
that  of  a  man  secure  that  justice  would  be  done  him. 
Both  he,  in  his  heart,  and  the  King,  knew  better. 


His  Escape  9 

"Oh,  Lord  God,"  sighed  Henry,  "what  fond 
simplicity  have  you,  so  to  permit  yourself  to  be 
imprisoned  !  "  False  witnesses  would  be  produced, 
and  he  would  be  condemned. 

Taking  his  precautions,  therefore,  Henry  gave 
the  Archbishop  his  ring — the  recognised  sign  that 
the  matter  at  issue  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  Council  and  reserved  for  his  personal  investiga- 
tion. After  which  sovereign  and  prelate  parted. 

When,  at  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning,  Cranmer, 
in  obedience  to  the  summons  he  had  received,  arrived 
at  the  Council  Chamber,  his  foes,  insolent  in  their 
premature  triumph,  kept  him  at  the  door,  awaiting 
their  convenience,  close  upon  an  hour.  My  lord 
of  Canterbury  was  become  a  lacquey,  some  one 
reported  to  the  King,  since  he  was  standing  among 
the  footmen  and  servants.  The  King,  comprehending 
what  was  implied,  was  wroth. 

"  Have  they  served  my  lord  so  ? "  he  asked. 
"  It  is  well  enough  ;  I  shall  talk  with  them  by  and 
by." 

Accordingly  when  Cranmer,  called  at  length  and 
arraigned  before  the  Council,  produced  the  ring 
— the  symbol  of  his  enemies'  discomfiture — and 
was  brought  to  the  royal  presence  that  his  cause 
might  be  tried  by  the  King  in  person,  the  positions 
of  accused  and  accusers  were  reversed.  Acting,  not 
without  passion,  rather  as  the  advocate  of  the  menaced 
man  than  as  his  judge,  Henry  received  the  Council 


io  Lady  Jane  Grey 

with  taunts,  and  in  reply  to  their  asseverations  that 
the  trial  had  been  merely  intended  to  conduce  to  the 
Archbishop's  greater  glory,  warned  them  against 
treating  his  friends  in  that  fashion  for  the  future. 
Cranmer,  for  the  present,  was  safe.1 

Protestant  England  rejoiced  with  the  Protestant 
Archbishop.  But  it  rejoiced  in  trembling.  The 
Archbishop's  escape  did  not  imply  immunity  to  lesser 
offenders,  and  the  severity  used  in  administering  the 
law  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  a  boy  of  fifteen  was 
burnt  for  heresy — no  willing  martyr,  but  ignorant, 
and  eager  to  catch  at  any  chances  of  life,  by  casting 
the  blame  of  his  heresy  on  others.  "  The  poor  boy," 
says  Hall,  "  would  have  gladly  said  that  the  twelve 
Apostles  taught  it  him  .  .  .  such  was  his  childish 
innocency  and  fear."2  And  England,  with  the 
strange  patience  of  the  age,  looked  on. 

Side  by  side  with  religious  persecution  ran 
the  story  of  the  King's  domestic  crimes.  To  go 
back  no  further,  in  the  year  1542  Katherine 
Howard,  Henry's  fifth  wife,  had  met  her  fate, 
and  the  country  had  silently  witnessed  the  pitiful  and 
shameful  spectacle.  As  fact  after  fact  came  to  light, 
the  tale  will  have  been  told  of  the  beautiful,  neglected 
child,  left  to  her  own  devices  and  to  the  companion- 
ship of  maid-servants  in  the  disorderly  household 
of  her  grandmother,  the  Duchess  of  Norfolk,  with 

1  Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
•  Hall's  Chronicle, 


Katherinc  Howard  1 1 

the  results  that  might  have  been  anticipated  ;  of  how 
she  had  suddenly  become  of  importance  when  it  had 
been  perceived  that  the  King  had  singled  her  out  for 
favour  ;  and  of  how,  still  "  a  very  little  girl,"  as 
some  one  described  her,  she  had  been  used  as  a  pawn 
in  the  political  game  played  by  the  Howard  clan, 
and  married  to  Henry.  Only  a  few  months  after 
she  had  been  promoted  to  her  perilous  dignity  her 
doom  had  overtaken  her  ;  the  enemies  of  the  party 
to  which  by  birth  she  belonged  had  not  only  made 
known  to  her  husband  misdeeds  committed  before 
her  marriage  and  almost  ranking  as  the  delin- 
quencies of  a  misguided  child,  but  had  hinted  at 
more  unpardonable  misdemeanours  of  which  the 
King's  wife  had  been  guilty.  The  story  of  Katherine's 
arraignment  and  condemnation  will  have  spread 
through  the  land,  with  her  protestations  that,  though 
not  excusing  the  sins  and  follies  of  her  youth — she 
was  seventeen  when  she  was  done  to  death — she 
was  guiltless  of  the  action  she  was  specially  to  expiate 
at  the  block  ;  whilst  men  may  have  whispered  the 
tale  of  her  love  for  Thomas  Culpeper,  her  cousin 
and  playmate,  whom  she  would  have  wedded  had 
not  the  King  stepped  in  between,  and  who  had 
paid  for  her  affection  with  his  blood.  "  I  die  a 
Queen,"  she  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed  upon  the 
scaffold,  "  but  I  would  rather  have  died  the  wife  of 
Culpeper."  l  And  it  may  have  been  rumoured  that 
1  Spanish  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.,  translated  by  Martin  Hume. 


12  Lady  Jane  Grey 

her  head  had  fallen,  not  so  much  to  vindicate  the 
honour  of  the  King  as  to  set  him  free  to  form 
fresh  ties. 

However  that  might  be,  Katherine  Howard  had 
been  sent  to  answer  for  her  offences,  or  prove  her 
innocence,  at  another  bar,  and  her  namesake,  Katherine 
Parr,  reigned  in  her  stead. 


From  a  photo  by  W.  Mnnsell  &  Co.  after  a  painting  of  the  School  of  Holbein. 
KATHERINE    HOWARD. 


CHAPTER   I 
1546 

Katherine  Parr — Relations  with  Thomas  Seymour — Married  to 
Henry  VIII. — Parties  in  court  and  country — Katharine's 
position — Prince  Edward. 

IT  was  now  three  years  since  Katherine  Parr  had 
replaced  the  unhappy  child  who  had  been  her 
immediate  predecessor.  For  three  perilous  years 
she  had  occupied — with  how  many  fears,  how  many 
misgivings,  who  can  tell  ? — the  position  of  the  King's 
sixth  wife.  On  a  July  day  in  1 543  Lady  La  timer, 
already  at  thirty  twice  a  widow,  had  been  raised 
to  the  rank  of  Queen.  If  the  ceremony  was 
attended  with  no  special  pomp,  neither  had  it  been 
celebrated  with  the  careful  privacy  observed  with 
respect  to  some  of  the  King's  marriages.  His  two 
daughters,  Mary — approximately  the  same  age  as  the 
bride,  and  who  was  her  friend — and  Elizabeth,  had 
been  present,  as  well  as  Henry's  brother-in-law, 
Edward  Seymour,  Earl  of  Hertford,  and  other  officers 
of  State.  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  after- 
wards her  dangerous  foe,  performed  the  rite,  in  the 
Queen's  Closet  at  Hampton  Court. 

Sir   Thomas   Seymour,    Hertford's    brother    and 


1 4  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Lord  Admiral  of  England,  was  not  at  Hampton 
Court  on  the  occasion,  having  been  despatched 
on  some  foreign  mission.  More  than  one  reason 
may  have  contributed  to  render  his  absence  advisable. 
A  wealthy  and  childless  widow,  of  unblemished 
reputation,  and  belonging  by  birth  to  a  race  con- 
nected with  the  royal  house,  was  not  likely  to  remain 
long  without  suitors,  and  Lord  Latimer  can  scarcely 
have  been  more  than  a  month  in  his  grave  before 
Thomas  Seymour  had  testified  his  desire  to  replace 
him  and  to  become  Katherine's  third  husband.  Nor 
does  she  appear  to  have  been  backward  in  responding 
to  his  advances. 

Twice  married  to  elderly  men  whose  lives  lay 
behind  them,  twice  set  free  by  death  from  her 
bonds,  she  may  fairly  have  conceived  that  the  time 
was  come  when  she  was  justified  in  wedding,  not 
for  family  or  substantial  reasons,  not  wholly  perhaps, 
as  before,  in  wisdom's  way,  but  a  man  she  loved. 

Seymour  was  not  without  attractions  calculated 
to  commend  him  to  a  woman  hitherto  bestowed 
upon  husbands  selected  for  her  by  others.  Young 
and  handsome,  "  fierce  in  courage,  courtly  in  fashion, 
in  personage  stately,  in  voice  magnificent,  but 
somewhat  empty  in  matter,"  l  the  gay  sailor  appears 
to  have  had  little  difficulty  in  winning  the  heart  of 
a  woman  who,  in  spite  of  the  learning,  the  prudence, 
and  the  piety  for  which  she  was  noted,  may  have 

1  Hay  ward's  Life  of  Edward  VI. 


{Catherine  Parr  15 

felt,  as  she  watched  her  youth  slip  by,  that  she  had 
had  little  good  of  it ;  and  it  is  clear,  from  a  letter 
she  addressed  to  Seymour  himself  when,  after 
Henry's  death,  his  suit  had  been  successfully  renewed, 
that  she  had  looked  forward  at  this  earlier  date  to 
becoming  his  wife. 

"  As  truly  as  God  is  God,"  she  then  wrote,  "  my 
mind  was  fully  bent,  the  other  time  I  was  at  liberty, 
to  marry  you  before  any  man  I  know.  Howbeit 
God  withstood  my  will  therein  most  vehemently 
for  a  time,  and  through  His  grace  and  goodness 
made  that  possible  which  seemed  to  me  most 
impossible  ;  that  was,  made  me  renounce  utterly 
mine  own  will  and  follow  His  most  willingly.  It 
were  long  to  write  all  the  processes  of  this  matter. 
If  I  live,  I  shall  declare  it  to  you  myself.  I  can 
say  nothing,  but  as  my  Lady  of  Suffolk  saith,  '  God 
is  a  marvellous  man.'  "  l 

Strange  burdens  of  responsibility  have  ever  been 
laid  upon  the  duty  of  obedience  to  the  will  of 
Providence,  nor  does  it  appear  clear  to  the  casual 
reader  why  the  consent  of  Katherine  to  become  a 
Queen  should  have  been  viewed  by  her  in  the 
light  of  a  sacrifice  to  principle.  Whether  her  point 
of  view  was  shared  by  her  lover  does  not  appear. 
It  is  at  all  events  clear  that  both  were  wise  enough 
in  the  world's  lore  not  to  brave  the  wrath  of  the 
despot  by  crossing  his  caprice.  Seymour  retired 
1  Sir  H.  Ellis,  Original  Letters. 


1 6  Lady  Jane  Grey 

from  the  field,  and  Katherine,  perhaps  sustained 
by  the  inward  approval  of  conscience,  perhaps 
partially  comforted  by  a  crown,  accepted  the 
dangerous  distinction  she  was  offered. 

To  her  brother,  Lord  Parr,  when  writing  to 
inform  him  of  her  advancement,  she  expressed  no 
regret.  It  had  pleased  God,  she  told  him,  to 
incline  the  King  to  take  her  as  his  wife,  the  greatest 
joy  and  comfort  that  could  happen  to  her.  She 
desired  to  communicate  the  great  news  to  Parr, 
as  being  the  person  with  most  cause  to  rejoice 
thereat,  and  added,  with  a  suspicion  of  condescension, 
her  hope  that  he  would  let  her  hear  of  his  health 
as  friendly  as  if  she  had  not  been  called  to  this 
honour.1 

Although  the  actual  marriage  had  not  taken  place 
until  some  six  months  after  Lord  Latimer's  death, 
no  time  can  have  been  lost  in  arranging  it,  since 
before  her  husband  had  been  two  months  in  the 
grave  Henry  was  causing  a  bill  for  her  dresses  to 
be  paid  out  of  the  Exchequer. 

It  was  generally  considered  that  the  King  had 
chosen  well.  Wriothesley,  the  Chancellor,  was  sure 
His  Majesty  had  never  a  wife  more  agreeable  to  his 
heart.  Gardiner  had  not  only  performed  the  mar- 
riage ceremony  but  had  given  away  the  bride. 
According  to  an  old  chronicle  the  new  Queen  was 
a  woman  "  compleat  with  singular  humility."  She 
1  Calendar,  Henry  VIII.,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  I.  2  Speed. 


Katherine  Parr  17 

had,  at  any  rate,  the  adroitness,  in  her  relations  with 
the  King,  to  assume  the  appearance  of  it,  and  was  a 
well-educated,  sensible,  and  kindly  woman,  "  quieter 
than  any  of  the  young  wives  the  King  had  had, 
and,  as  she  knew  more  of  the  world,  she  always  got 
on  pleasantly  with  the  King,  and  had  no  caprices." 

The  story  of  the  marriage  was  an  old  one  in  1546. 
Seymour  had  returned  from  his  mission  and  resumed 
his  former  position  at  Court  as  the  King's  brother-in- 
law  and  the  uncle  of  his  heir,  and  not  even  the  Queen's 
enemies — and  she  had  enough  of  them  and  to  spare — 
had  found  an  excuse  for  calling  to  mind  the  relations 
once  existing  between  the  Admiral  and  the  King's 
wife.  Nevertheless,  and  in  spite  of  the  blamelessness 
of  her  conduct,  the  satisfaction  which  had  greeted  the 
marriage  was  on  the  wane.  A  hard  task  would  have 
awaited  Queen  or  courtier  who  should  have  at- 
tempted to  minister  to  the  contentment  of  all  the  rival 
parties  striving  for  predominance  in  the  State  and  at 
Court,  and  to  be  adjudged  the  friend  of  the  one  was 
practically  equivalent  to  a  pledge  of  distrust  from 
the  other.  Whitehall,  like  the  country  at  large,  was 
divided  against  itself  by  theological  strife  ;  and 
whilst  the  men  faithful  to  the  ancient  creed  in  its 
entirety  were  inevitably  in  bitter  opposition  to  the 
adherents  of  the  new  teachers  whose  headquarters 
were  in  Germany,  a  third  party,  more  unscrupulous 
than  either,  was  made  up  of  the  middle  men  who 

1  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.,  translated  by  Martin  Hume. 

2 


1 8  Lady  Jane  Grey 

moulded — outwardly  or  inwardly — their  faith  upon 
the  King's,  and  would,  if  they  could,  have  created  a 
Papacy  without  a  Pope,  a  Catholic  Church  without 
its  corner-stone. 

At  Court,  as  elsewhere,  each  of  these  three 
parties  were  standing  on  their  guard,  ready  to 
parry  or  to  strike  a  blow  when  occasion  arose, 
jealous  of  every  success  scored  by  their  opponents. 
The  fall  of  Cromwell  had  inspired  the  Catholics 
with  hope,  and,  with  Gardiner  as  Minister  and 
Wriothesley  as  Chancellor,  they  had  been  in  a  more 
favourable  position  than  for  some  time  past  at  the 
date  of  the  King's  last  marriage.  It  had  then  been 
assumed  that  the  new  Queen's  influence  would  be 
employed  upon  their  side — an  expectation  confirmed 
by  her  friendship  with  the  Princess  Mary.  The 
discovery  that  the  widow  of  Lord  Latimer — so 
fervent  a  Catholic  that  he  had  joined  in  the  north- 
country  insurrection  known  as  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace — had  broken  with  her  past,  openly  displayed 
her  sympathy  with  Protestant  doctrine,  and,  in 
common  with  the  King's  nieces,  was  addicted  to 
what  was  called  the  "  new  learning,"  quickly  dis- 
abused them  of  their  hopes,  rendered  the  Catholic 
party  at  Court  her  embittered  enemies,  and  lent 
additional  danger  to  what  was  already  a  perilous 
position  by  affording  those  at  present  in  power  a 
motive  for  removing  from  the  King's  side  a  woman 
regarded  as  the  advocate  of  innovation. 


Katherine  Parr's  Policy  19 

So  far  their  efforts  had  been  fruitless.  Katherine 
still  held  her  own.  During  Henry's  absence  in 
France,  whither  he  had  gone  to  conduct  the  cam- 
paign in  person,  she  had  administered  the  Govern- 
ment, as  Queen-Regent,  with  tact  and  discretion; 
the  King  loved  her — as  he  understood  love — and, 
what  was  perhaps  a  more  important  matter,  she 
had  contrived  to  render  herself  necessary  to  him. 
Wary,  prudent,  and  pious,  and  notwithstanding  the 
possession  of  qualities  marking  her  out  in  some  sort 
as  the  superior  woman  of  her  day,  she  was  not  above 
pandering  to  his  love  of  flattery.  Into  her  book 
entitled  The  Lamentations  of  a  Sinner,  she  introduced 
a  fulsome  panegyric  of  the  godly  and  learned  King 
who  had  removed  from  his  realm  the  veils  and  mists 
of  error,  and  in  the  guise  of  a  modern  Moses  had 
been  victorious  over  the  Roman  Pharaoh.  What  she 
publicly  printed  she  doubtless  reiterated  in  private  ; 
and  the  King  found  the  domestic  incense  soothing  to 
an  irritable  temper,  still  further  acerbated  by  disease. 

By  other  methods  she  had  commended  herself  to 
those  who  were  about  him  open  to  conciliation.  She 
had  served  a  long  apprenticeship  in  the  art  of  the  step- 
mother, both  Lord  Borough,  her  first  husband,  and 
Lord  Latimer  having  possessed  children  when  she 
married  them  ;  and  her  skill  in  dealing  with  the  little 
heir  to  the  throne  and  his  sisters  proved  that  she 
had  turned  her  experience  to  good  account.  Her 
genuine  kindness,  not  only  to  Mary,  who  had  been 


20  Lady  Jane  Grey 

her  friend  from  the  first,  but  to  Elizabeth,  ten  years 
old  at  the  time  of  the  marriage,  was  calculated  to 
propitiate  the  adherents  of  each  ;  and  to  her  good 
offices  it  was  in  especial  due  that  Anne  Boleyn's 
daughter,  hitherto  kept  chiefly  at  a  distance  from 
Court,  was  brought  to  Whitehall.  The  child,  young 
as  she  was,  was  old  enough  to  appreciate  the  im- 
portance of  possessing  a  friend  in  her  father's  wife, 
and  the  letter  she  addressed  to  her  stepmother  on 
the  occasion  overflowed  with  expressions  of  devotion 
and  gratitude.  To  the  place  the  Queen  won  in  the 
affections  of  the  all-important  heir,  the  boy's  letters 
bear  witness. 

There  is  no  need  to  assume  that  Katherine's 
course  of  action  was  wholly  dictated  by  interested 
motives.  Yet  in  this  case  principle  and  prudence 
went  hand  in  hand.  Henry  was  becoming  in- 
creasingly sick  and  suffering,  and,  with  the  shadow 
of  death  deepening  above  him,  the  gifts  he  asked 
of  life  were  insensibly  changing  their  character. 
His  autocratic  and  violent  temper  remained  the 
same,  but  peace  and  quiet,  a  soothing  atmosphere 
of  submissive  affection,  the  absence  of  domestic 
friction,  if  not  sufficient  to  ensure  his  wife  im- 
munity from  peril,  constituted  her  best  chance  of 
escaping  the  doom  of  her  predecessors.  To  a 
selfish  man  the  appeal  must  be  to  self-interest. 
This  appeal  Katherine  consistently  made  and  it  had 
so  far  proved  successful.  For  the  rest,  whether 


Her  Precarious  Position  21 

she  suffered  from  terror  of  possible  disaster 
or  resolutely  shut  her  eyes  to  what  might  have 
unnerved  and  rendered  her  unfit  for  the  part  she 
had  to  play,  none  can  tell,  any  more  than  it  can 
be  determined  whether,  as  she  looked  from  the  man 
she  had  married  to  the  man  she  had  loved,  she 
indulged  in  vain  regrets  for  the  happiness  of  which 
she  had  caught  a  glimpse  in  those  brief  days  when 
she  had  dreamed  of  a  future  to  be  shared  with 
Thomas  Seymour. 

In  spite,  however,  of  her  caution,  in  spite  of  the 
perfection  with  which  she  performed  the  duties  of 
wife  and  nurse,  by  1546  disquieting  reports  were 
afloat. 

"  I  am  confused  and  apprehensive,"  wrote 
Charles  V.'s  ambassador  from  London  in  the 
February  of  that  year,  "  to  have  to  inform  Your 
Majesty  that  there  are  rumours  here  of  a  new 
Queen,  although  I  do  not  know  how  true  they 
be.  ...  The  King  shows  no  alteration  in  his 
behaviour  towards  the  Queen,  though  I  am  informed 
that  she  is  annoyed  by  the  rumours."  l 

With  the  history  of  the  past  to  quicken  her 
apprehensions,  she  may  well  have  been  more  than 
"  annoyed "  by  them.  But,  true  or  false,  she 
could  but  pursue  the  line  of  conduct  she  had 
adopted,  and  must  have  turned  with  relief  from 
domestic  anxieties  to  any  other  matters  that  could 
1  Martin  Hume,  Wives  of  Henry  VIII. ,  p.  438. 


22  Lady  Jane  Grey 

serve  to  distract  her  mind  from  her  precarious 
future.  Amongst  the  learned  ladies  of  a  day  when 
scholarship  was  becoming  a  fashion  she  occupied 
a  foremost  place,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  pro- 
moting educational  interests.  Stimulated  by  her 
stepmother's  approval,  the  Princess  Mary  had  been 
encouraged  to  undertake  part  of  the  translation  of 
Erasmus's  paraphrases  of  the  Gospels  ;  and  Elizabeth 
is  found  sending  the  Queen,  as  a  fitting  offering,  a 
translation  from  the  Italian  inscribed  on  vellum  and 
entitled  the  Glass e  of  the  Synneful  Souk,  accompany- 
ing it  by  the  expression  of  a  hope  that,  having 
passed  through  hands  so  learned  as  the  Queen's, 
it  would  come  forth  from  them  in  a  new  form. 
The  education  of  the  little  Prince  Edward  too 
was  pushed  rapidly  forward,  and  at  six  years  old, 
the  year  of  his  father's  marriage,  he  had  been 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  women  and  committed 
to  the  tuition  of  John  Cheke  and  Dr.  Richard  Cox. 
These  two,  explains  Heylyn,  being  equal  in 
authority,  employed  themselves  to  his  advantage 
in  their  several  kinds — Dr.  Cox  for  knowledge  of 
divinity,  philosophy,  and  gravity  of  manners,  Mr. 
Cheke  for  eloquence  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  tongues  ; 
whilst  other  masters  instructed  the  poor  child  in  mod- 
ern languages,  so  that  in  a  short  time  he  spoke  French 
perfectly,  and  was  able  to  express  himself  "  magnifi- 
cently enough  "  in  Italian,  Greek,  and  Spanish.1 

1  Heylyn's  Reformation. 


Katherine  and  her  Stepson  23 

His  companion  and  playfellow  was  one  Barnaby 
Fitzpatrick,  to  whom  he  clung  throughout  his  short 
life  with  constant  affection.  It  was  Barnaby's  office 
to  bear  whatever  punishment  the  Prince  had  merited 
— a  method  more  successful  in  the  case  of  the  Prince 
than  it  might  have  proved  with  a  less  soft-hearted 
offender,  since  it  is  said  that  "  it  was  not  easy  to 
affirm  whether  Fitzpatrick  smarted  more  for  the 
default  of  the  Prince,  or  the  Prince  conceived  more 
grief  for  the  smart  of  Fitzpatrick."  l 

Katherine  Parr  is  not  likely  to  have  regretted 
the  pressure  put  upon  her  stepson  ;  and  the  boy, 
apologising  for  his  simple  and  rude  letters,  adds  his 
acknowledgments  for  those  addressed  to  him  by 
the  Queen,  "  which  do  give  me  much  comfort  and 
encouragement  to  go  forward  in  such  things  wherein 
your  Grace  beareth  me  on  hand." 

The  King's  latest  wife  was,  in  fact,  a  teacher  by 
nature  and  choice,  and  admirably  fitted  to  direct  the 
studies  of  his  son  and  daughters,  as  well  as  of  any 
other  children  who  might  be  brought  within  the 
sphere  of  her  influence.  That  influence,  it  may  be, 
had  something  to  do  with  moulding  the  character 
and  the  destiny  of  a  child  fated  to  be  unhappily 
prominent  in  the  near  future.  This  was  Lady  Jane 
Grey. 

1  Heylyn's  Reformation, 


CHAPTER  III 
1546. 

The  Marquis  of  Dorset  and  his  family — Bradgate  Park — Lady  Jane 
Grey — Her  relations  with  her  cousins — Mary  Tudor — Protes- 
tantism at  Whitehall — Religious  persecution. 

A  MONGST  the  households  where  both  affairs  at 
J~\  Court  and  the  religious  struggle  distracting 
the  country  were  watched  with  the  deepest  interest 
was  that  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset,  the  husband 
of  the  King's  niece  and  father  of  Lady  Jane  Grey. 

Married  at  eighteen  to  the  infirm  and  aged  Louis 
XII.  of  France,  Mary  Tudor,  daughter  of  Henry  VII. 
and  friend  of  the  luckless  Katherine  of  Aragon,  had 
been  released  by  his  death  after  less  than  three 
months  of  wedded  life,  and  had  lost  no  time  in 
choosing  a  more  congenial  bridegroom.  At  Calais, 
on  her  way  home,  she  had  bestowed  her  hand  upon 
"  that  martial  and  pompous  gentleman,"  Charles 
Brandon,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  who,  sent  by  her  brother 
to  conduct  her  back  to  England,  thought  it  well  to 
secure  his  bride  and  to  wait  until  the  union  was 
accomplished  before  obtaining  the  King's  consent. 
Of  this  hurried  marriage  the  eldest  child  was  the 

24 


Bradgate  Park  25 

mother  of  Jane  Grey,  who  thus  derived  her  disastrous 
heritage  of  royal  blood. 

It  was  at  the  country  home  of  the  Dorset  family, 
Bradgate  Park,  that  Lady  Jane  had  been  born,  in 
1537.  Six  miles  distant  from  the  town  of  Leicester, 
and  forming  the  south-east  end  of  Charnwood 
Forest,  it  was  a  pleasant  and  quiet  place.  Over  the 
wide  park  itself,  seven  miles  in  circumference, 
bracken  grew  freely  ;  here  and  there  bare  rocks  rose 
amidst  the  masses  of  green  undergrowth,  broken 
now  and  then  by  a  solitary  oak,  and  the  unwooded 
expanse  was  covered  with  "  wild  verdure."  l 

The  house  itself  had  not  long  been  built,  nor  is 
there  much  remaining  at  the  present  day  to  show 
what  had  been  its  aspect  at  the  time  when  Lady  Jane 
was  its  inmate.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  it 
was  destroyed  by  fire,  tradition  ascribing  the  catas- 
trophe to  a  Lady  Suffolk  who,  brought  to  her 
husband's  home  as  a  bride,  complained  that  the 
country  was  a  forest  and  the  inhabitants  were 
brutes,  and,  at  the  suggestion  of  her  sister,  took 
the  most  certain  means  of  ensuring  a  change  of 
residence. 

But  if  little  outward  trace  is  left  of  the  place 
where  the  victim  of  state-craft  and  ambition  was  born 
and  passed  her  early  years,  it  is  not  a  difficult  matter 
to  hazard  a  guess  at  the  religious  and  political  atmo- 
sphere of  her  home.  Echoes  of  the  fight  carried  on, 

1  Andrew  Bloxam. 


26  Lady  Jane  Grey 

openly  or  covertly,  between  the  parties  striving  for 
predominance  in  the  realm  must  have  almost  daily 
reached    Bradgate,    the    accounts    of    the    incidents 
marking  the  combat  taking   their   colour  from  the 
sympathies  of  the  master  and  mistress  of  the  house, 
strongly  enlisted  upon  the  side  of  Protestantism.     At 
Lord    Dorset's  house,    though  with    closed  doors, 
the  condition  of  religious  affairs  must  have  supplied 
constant  matter  for  discussion  ;  and  Jane  will  have 
listened  to  the  conversation  with  the  eager  attention 
of  an  intelligent  child,  piecing  together  the  fragments 
she  gathered  up,  and  gradually  realising,  with  a  thrill 
of  excitement,  as  she  became  old  enough  to  grasp  the 
significance  of  what  she  heard,  that  men  and  women 
were  suffering   and  dying  in  torment  for   the   sake 
of  doctrines  she  had  herself  been  taught  as  a  matter 
of  course.     Serious  and  precocious,  and  already  be- 
ginning an  education  said  to  have  included  in  later 
years  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  Chaldaic,  Arabic,  French, 
and  Italian,  the  stories  reaching  her  father's  house  ot 
the  events  taking  place  in  London  and  at  Court  must 
have  imprinted  themselves  upon  her  imagination  at 
an  age  specially  open  to  such  impressions,  and  it  is 
not  unnatural  that  she  should  have  grown  up  nurtured 
in  the  principles  of  polemics  and  apt  at  controversy. 

Nor    were    edifying    tales    of  martyrdom    or    of 
suffering  for  conscience'  sake  the  only  ones  to  pene- 
trate to  the  green  and  quiet  precincts  of  Bradgate. 
At  his  niece's  house  the  King's  domestic  affairs — 


Lady  Jane  Grey's  Childhood  27 

a  scandal  and  a  by-word  in  Europe — must  have 
been  regarded  with  the  added  interest,  perhaps  the 
sharper  criticism,  due  to  kinship.  Henry  was  not 
only  Lady  Dorset's  sovereign,  but  her  uncle,  and  she 
had  a  more  personal  interest  than  others  in  what 
Messer  Barbaro,  in  his  report  to  the  Venetian 
senate,  described  as  "  this  confusion  of  wives."  1  To 
keep  a  child  ignorant  was  no  part  of  the  training 
of  the  day,  and  Jane,  herself  destined  for  a  court 
life,  no  doubt  had  heard,  as  she  grew  older, 
many  of  the  stories  of  terror  and  pity  circulating 
throughout  the  country,  and  investing,  in  the  eyes  of 
those  afar  off,  the  distant  city — the  stage  whereon 
most  of  them  had  been  enacted — with  the  atmosphere 
of  mystery  and  fear  and  excitement  belonging  to  a 
place  where  martyrs  were  shedding  their  blood,  or 
heretics  atoning  for  their  guilt,  according  as  the 
narrators  inclined  to  the  ancient  or  the  novel  faith  ; 
where  tragedies  of  love  and  hatred  and  revenge 
were  being  played,  and  men  went  in  hourly  peril 
of  their  lives. 

Of  this  place,  invested  with  the  attraction  and 
glamour  belonging  to  a  land  of  glitter  and  romance, 
Lady  Jane  had  glimpses  on  the  occasions  when, 
as  a  near  relation  of  the  King's,  she  accompanied 
her  mother  to  Court,  becoming  for  a  while  a 
sharer  in  the  life  of  palaces  and  an  actor,  by 
reason  of  her  strain  of  royal  blood,  in  the  pageant 

1  Calendar  of  State  Papers  (Venetian),  p.  346. 


28  Lady  Jane  Grey 

ever  going  forward  at  St.  James's  or  Whitehall ; l 
and  though  it  does  not  appear  that  she  was  finally 
transferred  from  the  guardianship  of  her  parents  to 
that  of  the  Queen  until  after  the  death  of  Henry 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1547,  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  the  book-loving  child  of  nine  may  have  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  scholarly  Queen  during  her 
visits  to  Court  and  that  Katherine's  belligerent 
Protestantism  had  its  share  in  the  development  of 
the  convictions  which  afterwards  proved  so  strong 
both  in  life  and  in  death. 

There  is  at  this  date  little  trace  of  any  con- 
nection between  Jane  and  her  cousins,  the  King's 
children.  A  strong  affection  on  the  part  of  Edward 
is  said  to  have  existed,  and  to  it  has  been  attributed 
his  consent  to  set  his  sisters  aside  in  Lady  Jane's 
favour.  "She  charmed  all  who  knew  her,"  says 
Burnet,  "  in  particular  the  young  King,  about 
whom  she  was  bred,  and  who  had  always  lived 
with  her  in  the  familiarity  of  a  brother."  For 
this  statement  there  is  no  contemporary  authority, 
and,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  intercourse  be- 


1  It  is  stated  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  that  Lady 
Jane  was  attached  to  the  Queen's  household  in  1546,  but  I  am 
unable  to  discover  any  proof  of  the  fact.  Speed,  in  his  chronicle, 
makes  two  or  three  mentions  of  her,  from  which  other  biographers 
have  concluded  that  she  was  in  close  attendance  on  Katherine  Parr 
during  the  King's  lifetime.  But  it  seems  clear  that  he  made  a 
confusion  between  Lady  Jane,  the  King's  great-niece,  and  Lady 
Lane,  Katherine's  cousin,  born  Maud  Parr,  who  was  at  that  time 
a  member  of  her  household. 


Jane  and  her  Cousins  29 

tween  the  two  can  have  been  but  slight.  Between 
Edward  and  his  younger  sister,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  bond  of  affection  was  strong,  their  educa- 
tion being  carried  on  at  this  time  much  together 
at  Hatfield  ;  and  "  a  concurrence  and  sympathy 
of  their  natures  and  affections,  together  with  the 
celestial  bond,  conformity  in  religion,"  made  it 
the  more  remarkable  that  the  Prince  should  have 
afterwards  agreed  to  set  aside,  in  favour  of  his 
cousin,  Elizabeth's  claim  to  the  succession.  It  is 
true  that  in  their  occasional  meetings  the  studious 
boy  and  the  serious-minded  little  girl  may  have 
discovered  that  they  had  tastes  in  common,  but  such 
casual  acquaintanceship  can  scarcely  have  availed  to 
counterbalance  the  affection  produced  by  close  com- 
panionship and  the  tie  of  blood ;  and  grounds 
for  the  Prince's  subsequent  conduct,  other  than  the 
influence  and  arguments  of  those  about  him,  can 
only  be  matter  of  conjecture. 

Of  the  relations  existing  between  Jane  and  the 
Prince's  sisters  there  is  little  more  mention  ;  but 
the  entry  by  Mary  Tudor  in  a  note-book  of  the 
gift  of  a  gold  necklace  set  with  pearls,  made  "  to 
my  cousin,  Jane  Gray,"  shows  that  the  two  had 
met  in  the  course  of  this  summer,  and  would  seem 
to  indicate  a  kindly  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  older 
woman  towards  the  unfortunate  child  whom,  not 
eight  years  later,  she  was  to  send  to  the  scaffold. 

1  Naunton. 


3°  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Could  the  future  have  been  laid  bare  it  would 
perhaps  not  have  been  the  victim  who  would  have 
recoiled  from  the  revelation  with  the  greatest 
horror. 

Although  what  was  to  follow  lends  a  tragic  signi- 
ficance to  the  juxtaposition  of  the  names  of  the  two 
cousins,  there  was  nothing  sinister  about  the  King's 
elder  daughter  as  she  filled  the  place  at  Court  in 
which  she  had  been  reinstated  at  the  instance  of  her 
step-mother.  A  gentle,  brown-eyed  woman,  past 
her  first  youth,  and  bearing  on  her  countenance 
the  traces  of  sickness  and  sorrow  and  suffering, 
she  enjoyed  at  this  date  so  great  a  popularity  as 
almost,  according  to  a  foreign  observer,  to  be  an 
object  of  adoration  to  her  father's  subjects,  ob- 
stinately faithful  to  her  injured  and  repudiated 
mother.  But,  ameliorated  as  was  the  Princess's 
condition,  she  had  been  too  well  acquainted,  from 
childhood  upwards,  with  the  reverses  of  fortune  to 
count  over-securely  upon  a  future  depending  upon 
her  father's  caprice. 

Her  health  was  always  delicate,  and  during  the  early 
part  of  the  year  she  had  been  ill.  By  the  spring, 
however,  she  had  resumed  her  attendance  at  Court, 
and — to  judge  by  a  letter  from  her  little  wise  brother, 
contemplating  from  a  safe  distance  the  dangerous 
pastimes  of  Whitehall — was  taking  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  entertainments  in  fashion.  Writing  in 
Latin  to  his  stepmother,  Prince  Edward  besought 


The  Princess  Mary  31 

her  "  to  preserve  his  dear  sister  Mary  from  the 
enchantments  of  the  Evil  One,  by  beseeching  her 
no  longer  to  attend  to  foreign  dances  and  merri- 
ments, unbecoming  in  a  most  Christian  Princess  " — 
and  least  of  all  in  one  for  whom  he  expressed  the 
wish,  in  the  course  of  the  same  summer,  that  the 
wisdom  of  Esther  might  be  hers. 

It  does  not  appear  whether  or  not  Mary  took 
the  admonitions  of  her  nine-year-old  Mentor  to 
heart.  The  pleasures  of  court  life  are  not  likely 
to  have  exercised  a  perilous  fascination  over  the 
Princess,  her  spirits  clouded  by  the  memory  of  her 
melancholy  past  and  the  uncertainty  of  her  future, 
and  probably  represented  to  her  a  more  or  less 
wearisome  part  of  the  necessary  routine  of  existence. 

Whilst  the  entertainments  the  Prince  deplored 
went  forward  at  Whitehall,  they  were  accompanied 
by  other  practices  he  would  have  wholly  approved. 
Not  only  was  his  stepmother  addicted  to  personal 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  but  she  had  secured  the 
services  of  learned  men  to  instruct  her  further  in 
them  ;  holding  private  conferences  with  these 
teachers  ;  and,  especially  during  Lent,  causing  a 
sermon  to  be  delivered  each  afternoon  for  her  own 
benefit  and  that  of  any  of  her  ladies  disposed  to 
profit  by  it,  when  the  discourse  frequently  turned  or 
touched  upon  abuses  in  the  Church.1 

It    was   a   bold    stroke,    Henry's   claims    to    the 

1  Foxe,  A  els  and  Monuments. 


32  Lady  Jane  Grey 

position  of  sole  arbiter  on  questions  of  doctrine 
considered.  Nevertheless  the  Queen  acted  openly, 
and  so  far  her  husband  had  testified  no  dissatisfaction. 
Yet  the  practice  must  have  served  to  accentuate 
the  dividing  line  of  theological  opinion,  already 
sufficiently  marked  at  Court  ;  some  members  of 
the  royal  household,  like  Princess  Mary,  holding 
aloof;  others  eagerly  welcoming  the  step;  the 
Seymours,  Cranmer,  and  their  friends  looking  on 
with  approval,  whilst  the  Howard  connection,  with 
Gardiner  and  Wriothesley,  took  note  of  the  Queen's 
imprudence,  and  waited  and  watched  their  oppor- 
tunity to  turn  it  to  their  advantage  and  to  her 
destruction. 

Such  was  the  internal  condition  of  the  Court. 
The  spring  had  meanwhile  been  marked  by  rejoicings 
for  the  peace  with  foreign  powers,  at  last  concluded. 
On  Whit-Sunday  a  great  procession  proceeded  from 
St.  Paul's  to  St.  Peter's,  Cornhill,  accompanied  by  a 
banner,  and  by  crosses  from  every  parish  church, 
the  children  of  St.  Paul's  School  joining  in  the  show. 
It  was  composed  of  a  motley  company.  Bishop 
Bonner — as  vehement  in  his  Catholicism  as  Gardiner, 
and  so  much  less  wary  in  the  display  of  his  opinions 
that  his  brother  of  Winchester  was  wont  at  times  to 
term  him  "  asse  " — carried  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
under  a  canopy,  with  "  clerks  and  priests  and  vicars 
and  parsons"  ;  the  Lord  Mayor  was  there  in  crimson 
velvet,  the  aldermen  were  in  scarlet,  and  all  the  crafts 


From  an  engraving  by  R.  Dalton  after  a  drawing  by  Holbein. 

PRINCE    EDWARD,    AFTERWARDS   EDWARD   VI. 


A  General  Peace  33 

in  their  best  apparel.  The  occasion  was  worthy  of 
the  pomp  displayed  in  honour  of  it,  for  it  was — the 
words  sound  like  a  jest — the  festival  of  a  "  Universal 
Peace  for  ever,"  announced  by  the  Mayor,  standing 
between  standard  and  cross,  and  including  in  the 
proclamation  of  general  amity  the  names  of  the 
Emperor,  the  King  of  England,  the  French  King, 
and  all  Christian  Kings.1 

If  soldiers  had  for  the  moment  consented  to 
proclaim  a  truce  and  to  name  it,  merrily,  eternal, 
theologians  had  agreed  to  no  like  suspension  of 
hostilities,  and  the  perennial  religious  strife  showed 
no  signs  of  intermission. 

"  Sire,"  wrote  Admiral  d'Annebaut,  sent  by 
Francis  to  London  to  ratify  the  peace,  "  I  know 
not  what  to  tell  your  Majesty  as  to  the  order  given 
me  to  inform  myself  of  the  condition  of  religious 
affairs  in  England  ;  except  that  Henry  has  declared 
himself  head  of  the  Anglican  Church,  and  woe 
to  whomsoever  refuses  to  recognise  him  in  that 
capacity.  He  has  also  usurped  all  ecclesiastical 
property,  and  destroyed  all  the  convents.  He 
attends  Mass  nevertheless  daily,  and  permits  the 
papal  nuncio  to  live  in  London.  What  is  strangest 
of  all  is  that  Catholics  are  there  burnt  as  well  as 
Lutherans  and  other  heretics.  Was  anything  like 
it  ever  seen  ? " 

1   Grey  Friars'  Chronicle  (Camden  Society),  p.  50. 

8  G.  Leti,  Vie  d 'Elizabeth ,  Reine  d1  Angleterre,  t.  i.,  p.  153. 

3 


34  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Punishment  was  indeed  dealt  out  with  singular 
impartiality.  During  the  spring  Dr.  Crome  had 
been  examined  touching  a  sermon  he  had  delivered 
against  Catholic  doctrine.  Two  or  three  weeks 
later,  preaching  once  more  at  Paul's  Cross,  he  had 
boldly  declared  he  was  not  there  for  the  purpose 
of  denying  his  former  assertions  ;  but  a  second 
"  examination  "  had  proved  more  effective,  and  on 
the  Sunday  following  the  feast  of  Corpus  Christi  he 
eschewed  his  heresies.1  "  Our  news  here,"  wrote  a 
merchant  of  London  to  his  brother  on  July  2,  "of 
Dr.  Crome's  canting,  recanting,  decanting,  or  rather 
double-canting,  be  this." 2  The  transaction  was 
representative  of  many  others,  which,  with  their 
undercurrent  of  terror,  struggle,  intimidation, 
menace,  and  remorse,  formed  a  melancholy  and 
recurrent  feature  of  the  day,  the  victory  remaining 
sometimes  with  a  man's  conscience — whatever  it 
dictates  might  be — sometimes  with  his  fears. 

The  King  was,  in  fact,  still  endeavouring  to  stem 
the  torrent  he  had  set  loose.  In  his  speech  to 
Parliament  on  Christmas  Eve,  1545,  after  com- 
mending and  thanking  Lords  and  Commons  for 
their  loyalty  and  affection  towards  himself,  he  had 
spoken  with  severity  of  the  discord  and  dissension 
prevalent  in  the  realm  ;  the  clergy,  by  their  sermons 
against  each  other,  sowing  debate  and  discord 

1  Grey  Friars'  Chronicle  (Camden  Society),  p.  51. 
3  Ellis's  Original  Letters,  Series  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  176. 


Results  of  Henry's  Reign  35 

amongst  the  people.  .  .  "  I  am  very  sorry  to  know 
and  hear  how  unreverently  that  most  precious  jewel, 
the  Word  of  God,  is  disputed,  rimed,  sung  and 
jangled  in  every  ale-house  and  tavern  .  .  .  and 
yet  I  am  even  as  much  sorry  that  the  readers  of  the 
same  follow  it  in  doing  so  faintly  and  so  coldly. 
For  of  this  I  am  sure,  that  charity  was  never  so 
faint  amongst  you,  and  virtuous  and  godly  living 
was  never  less  used,  nor  God  Himself  amongst 
Christians  was  never  less  reverenced,  honoured,  and 
served.1 

Delivered  scarcely  more  than  a  year  before  his 
death,  Henry's  speech  was  a  singular  commentary 
upon  the  condition  of  the  realm,  consequent  upon 
his  own  policy,  during  the  concluding  years  of  his 
reign. 

1  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  Life  of  Henry  VIII.,  p.  537. 


CHAPTER    IV 
1546 

Anne  Askew — Her  trial  and  execution — Katherine  Parr's 
danger — Plot  against  her — Her  escape. 

AS  the  months  of  1546  went  by  the  measures 
taken  by  the  King  and  his  advisers  to  enforce 
unanimity  of  practice  and  opinion  in  matters  of 
religion  did  not  become  less  drastic.  A  great 
burning  of  books  disapproved  by  Henry  took  place 
during  the  autumn,  preceded  in  July  by  the 
condemnation  and  execution  of  a  victim  whose 
fate  attracted  an  unusual  amount  of  attention,  the 
effect  at  Court  being  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the 
heroine  of  the  story  was  personally  known  to  the 
Queen  and  her  ladies.  It  was  indeed  reported  that 
one  of  the  King's  special  causes  of  displeasure  was 
that  she  had  been  the  means  of  imbuing  his  nieces — 
among  whom  was  Lady  Dorset,  Jane  Grey's  mother 
— as  well  as  his  wife,  with  heretical  doctrines. 

Added  to  the  species  of  glamour  commonly 
surrounding  a  spiritual  leader,  more  particularly  in 
times  of  persecution,  Anne  Askew  was  beautiful 
and  young — not  more  than  twenty-five  at  the  time 

36 


Anne  Askew  37 

of  her  death — and  the  thought  of  her  racked 
frame,  her  undaunted  courage,  and  her  final  agony 
at  the  stake,  may  well  have  haunted  with  the 
horror  of  a  night-mare  those  who  had  been  her 
disciples,  and  who  looked  on  from  a  distance,  and 
with  sympathy  they  dared  not  display. 

There  were  other  circumstances  increasing  the 
interest  with  which  the  melancholy  drama  was 
watched.  Well  born  and  educated,  Anne  had  been 
the  wife  of  a  Lincolnshire  gentleman  of  the  name 
of  Kyme.  Their  life  together  had  been  of  short 
duration.  In  a  period  of  bitter  party  feeling  and 
recrimination,  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain  with  certainty 
the  truth  on  any  given  point  ;  and  whilst  a  hostile 
chronicler  asserts  that  Anne  left  her  husband  in 
order  "  to  gad  up  and  down  a-gospelling  and 
gossipping  where  she  might  and  ought  not,  but 
especially  in  London  and  near  the  Court,"  l  another 
authority  explains  that  Kyme  had  turned  her  out 
of  his  house  upon  her  conversion  to  Protestant 
doctrines.  Whatever  might  have  been  the  origin 
of  her  mode  of  life,  it  is  certain  that  she  resumed 
her  maiden  name,  and  proceeded  to  "  execute  the 
office  of  an  apostle." 2 

Her  success  in  her  new  profession  made  her 
unfortunately  conspicuous,  and  in  1545  she  was 
committed  to  Newgate,  "for  that  she  was  very 

1  N.  D.,  quoted,  with  disapproval,  by  Speed. 
?  Lingard,  History^  vol.  v.,  p.  200, 


38  Lady  Jane  Grey 

obstinate  and  heady  in  reasoning  on  matters  of 
religion."  The  charge,  it  must  be  confessed,  is 
corroborated  by  her  demeanour  under  examination, 
when  the  qualities  of  meekness  and  humility  were 
markedly  absent,  and  her  replies  to  the  interroga- 
tories addressed  to  her  were  rather  calculated  to 
irritate  than  to  prove  conciliatory.  On  this  first 
occasion,  for  example,  asked  to  interpret  certain 
passages  in  the  Scriptures,  she  declined  to  comply 
with  the  request  on  the  score  that  she  would  not 
cast  pearls  among  swine — acorns  were  good  enough  ; 
and,  urged  by  Bonner  to  open  her  wound,  she 
again  refused.  Her  conscience  was  clear,  she  said  ; 
to  lay  a  plaster  on  a  whole  skin  might  seem  much 
folly,  and  the  similitude  of  a  wound  appeared  to  her 
unsavoury.1 

For  the  time  she  escaped  ;  but  in  the  course  of 
the  following  year  her  case  was  again  brought 
forward,  and  on  this  occasion  she  found  no  mercy. 
Her  examinations,  mostly  reported  by  herself,  show 
her  as  alike  keen-witted  and  sharp-tongued,  rarely 
at  a  loss  for  an  answer,  and  profoundly  convinced 
of  the  justice  of  her  cause.  If  she  was  not  without 
the  genuine  enjoyment  of  the  born  controversialist 
in  the  opportunity  of  argument  and  discussion,  she 
possessed,  underlying  the  self-assertion  and  confidence 
natural  in  a  woman  holding  the  position  of  a 
religious  leader,  a  fund  of  indomitable  heroism. 

1  Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments. 


Anne  Askew  39 

For  she  must  have  been  fully  conscious  of  her 
danger.  It  is  possible  that,  had  she  not  been 
brought  into  prominence  by  her  association  with 
those  in  high  places,  she  might  again  have  escaped  ; 
but,  apart  from  the  grudge  owed  her  for  her 
influence  over  the  King's  own  kin,  her  attitude 
was  almost  such  as  to  court  her  fate.  Refusing  "  to 
sing  a  new  song  of  the  Lord  in  a  strange  land," 
she  replied  to  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  when  he 
complained  that  she  spoke  in  parables,  that  it  was 
best  for  him  that  she  should  do  so.  Had  she 
shown  him  the  open  truth,  he  would  not  accept  it. 

"  Then  the  Bishop  said  he  would  speak  with  me 
familiarly.  I  said,  c  So  did  Judas  when  he  unfriendlily 
betrayed  Christ.  .  .  .'  In  conclusion,"  she  ended,  in 
her  account  of  the  interview,  "  we  could  not  agree." 

Spirited  as  was  her  bearing,  and  thrilling  as  the 
prisoner  plainly  was  with  all  the  excitement  of  a  battle 
of  words,  it  was  not  strange  that  the  strain  should 
tell  upon  her. 

"  On  the  Sunday,"  she  proceeds — and  there  is  a 
pathetic  contrast  between  the  physical  weakness  to 
which  she  confesses  and  her  undaunted  boldness  in 
confronting  the  men  bent  upon  her  destruction — 
"  I  was  sore  sick,  thinking  no  less  than  to  die.  .  .  . 
Then  was  I  sent  to  Newgate  in  my  extremity  of 
sickness,  for  in  all  my  life  I  was  never  in  such  pain. 
Thus  the  Lord  strengthen  us  in  His  truth.  Pray, 
pray,  pray." 


40  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Her  condemnation  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  It 
followed  quickly,  with  a  subsequent  visit  from  one 
Nicholas  Shaxton,  who,  having,  for  his  own  part, 
made  his  recantation,  counselled  her  to  do  the  same. 
He  spoke  in  vain.  It  were,  she  told  him,  good  for 
him  never  to  have  been  born,  "  with  many  like 
words."  More  was  to  follow.  If  her  assertion  is  to 
be  believed — and  there  seems  no  valid  reason  to  doubt 
it — the  rack  was  applied  "  till  I  was  nigh  dead.  .  .  . 
After  that  I  sat  two  long  hours  reasoning  with  my 
Lord  Chancellor  upon  the  bare  floor.  Then  was  I 
brought  into  a  house  and  laid  in  a  bed  with  as  weary 
and  painful  bones  as  ever  had  patient  Job.  I  thank 
my  God  therefore." 

A  scarcely  credible  addition  is  made  to  the  story, 
to  the  effect  that  when  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower 
had  refused  to  put  the  victim  to  the  torture  a  second 
time,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  Wriothesley,  less  merciful, 
took  the  office  upon  himself,  and  applied  the  rack 
with  his  own  hands,  the  Lieutenant  departing  to 
report  the  matter  to  the  King,  <f  who  seemed  not  very 
well  to  like  such  handling  of  a  woman."  l  What  is 
certain  is  the  final  scene  at  Smithfield,  where  Shaxton 
delivered  a  sermon,  Anne  listening,  endorsing  his 

1  Dr.  Lingard,  quoting  the  narrative  attributed  to  Anne,  credits 
neither  it  nor  the  addition  for  which  Foxe  is  responsible,  stating 
that  there  is  no  other  instance  of  a  woman  being  subjected  to 
torture,  that  a  written  order  from  the  Lords  of  the  Council  was 
necessary  before  it  could  be  inflicted,  and  that  it  was  not  customary 
for  either  the  Chancellor  or  his  colleagues  to  be  present  on  these 
occasions.—  History,  vol.  v.,  p.  201, 


The  King's  Illness  41 

words  when  she  approved  of  them  and  correcting 
them  u  when  he  said  amiss." 

So  the  shameful  episode  was  brought  to  an  end. 
The  tale,  penetrating  even  the  thick  walls  of  a 
palace,  must  have  caused  a  thrill  of  horror  at 
Whitehall,  accentuated  by  reason  of  certain  events 
going  forward  there  about  the  same  time. 

The  King's  disease  was  gaining  upon  him  apace. 
He  had  become  so  unwieldy  in  bulk  that  the  use 
of  machinery  was  necessary  to  move  him,  and  with 
the  progress  of  his  disorder  his  temper  was  becoming 
more  and  more  irritable.  In  view  of  his  approaching 
death  the  question  of  the  guardianship  and  custody 
of  the  heir  to  the  throne  was  increasing  in  importance 
and  the  jealousy  of  the  rival  parties  was  becoming 
more  embittered.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  the 
Catholics  about  the  Court  ventured  on  a  bold  stroke, 
directed  against  no  less  a  person  than  the  Queen. 

Emboldened  by  the  tolerance  displayed  by  the 
King  towards  her  religious  practices  and  the  preachers 
and  teachers  she  gathered  around  her,  Katherine  had 
grown  so  daring  as  to  make  matters  of  doctrine  a 
constant  subject  of  conversation  with  Henry,  urging 
him  to  complete  the  work  he  had  begun,  and  to  free 
the  Church  of  England  from  superstition.1  Henry 
appears  at  first — though  he  was  a  man  ill  to  argue 
with — to  have  shown  singular  patience  under  his 
wife's  admonitions.  But  daily  controversy  is  not 
1  Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments, 


42  Lady  Jane  Grey 

soothing  to  a  sick  man's  nerves  and  temper,  and 
Katherine's  enemies,  watching  their  opportunity, 
conceived  that  it  was  at  hand. 

Henry's  habits  had  been  altered  by  illness,  and  it 
had  become  the  Queen's  custom  to  wait  for  a 
summons  before  visiting  his  apartments  ;  although 
on  some  occasions,  after  dinner  or  supper,  or  when 
she  had  reason  to  imagine  she  would  be  welcome, 
she  repaired  thither  on  her  own  initiative.  But 
perhaps  the  more  as  she  perceived  that  time  was 
short,  she  continued  her  imprudent  exhortations. 
And  still  her  enemies,  wary  and  silent,  watched. 

Henry  appears — and  it  says  much  for  his  affection 
for  her — to  have  for  a  time  maintained  the  attitude 
of  a  not  uncomplacent  listener.  On  a  certain  day, 
however,  when  Katherine  was,  as  usual,  descanting 
upon  questions  of  theology,  he  changed  the  subject 
abruptly,  "  which  somewhat  amazed  the  Queen." 
Reassured  by  perceiving  no  further  signs  of  dis- 
pleasure, she  talked  upon  other  topics  until  the 
time  came  for  the  King  to  bid  her  farewell,  which 
he  did  with  his  customary  affection. 

The  account  of  what  followed — Foxe  being,  as 
before,  the  narrator — must  be  accepted  with  reserva- 
tion. Gardiner,  chancing  to  be  present,  was  made 
the  recipient  of  his  master's  irritation.  It  was  a  good 
hearing,  the  King  said  ironically,  when  women  were 
become  clerks,  and  a  thing  much  to  his  comfort,  to 
come  in  his  old  days  to  be  taught  by  his  wife. 


The  Queen  Attacked  43 

Gardiner  made  prompt  use  of  the  opening  afforded 
him  ;  he  had  waited  long  for  it,  and  it  was  not 
wasted.  The  Queen,  he  said,  had  forgotten  herself, 
in  arguing  with  a  King  whose  virtues  and  whose 
learnedness  in  matters  of  religion  were  not  only 
greater  than  were  possessed  by  other  princes,  but 
exceeded  those  of  doctors  in  divinity.  For  the 
Bishop  and  his  friends  it  was  a  grievous  thing  to 
hear.  Proceeding  to  enlarge  upon  the  subject  at 
length,  he  concluded  by  saying  that,  though  he 
dared  not  declare  what  he  knew  without  special 
warranty  from  the  King,  he  and  others  were  aware 
of  treason  cloaked  in  heresy.  Henry,  he  warned 
him,  was  cherishing  a  serpent  in  his  bosom. 

It  was  risking  much,  but  the  Bishop  knew  to 
whom  he  spoke,  and,  working  adroitly  upon 
Henry's  fears  and  wrath,  succeeded  in  obtaining 
permission  to  consult  with  his  colleagues  and  to  draw 
up  articles  by  which  the  Queen's  life  might  be 
touched.  "  They  thought  it  best  to  begin  with  such 
ladies  as  she  most  esteemed  and  were  privy  to  all  her 
doings — as  the  Lady  Herbert,  her  sister,  the  Lady 
Lane,  who  was  her  first  cousin,  and  the  Lady 
Tyrwhitt,  all  of  her  privy  chamber."  The  plan 
was  to  accuse  these  ladies  of  the  breach  of  the  Six 
Articles,  to  search  their  coffers  for  documents  or 
books  compromising  to  the  Queen,  and,  in  case  any- 
thing of  that  nature  were  found,  to  carry  Katherine 
by  night  to  the  Tower.  The  King,  acquainted  with 


44  Lady  Jane  Grey 

the  design,  appears  to  have  given  his  consent,  and 
all  went  on  as  before,  Henry  still  encouraging, 
or  at  least  not  discouraging,  his  wife's  discourse  on 
spiritual  matters. 

Time  was  passing  ;  the  bill  of  articles  against  the 
Queen  had  been  prepared,  and  Henry  had  affixed  his 
signature  to  it,  whether  with  a  deliberate  intention 
of  giving  her  over  to  her  enemies,  or,  as  some  said, 
meaning  to  deter  her  from  the  study  of  prohibited 
literature — in  which  case,  as  Lord  Herbert  of 
Cherbury  observes,  it  was  "  a  terrible  jest."  l  That 
Katherine  herself  did  not  regard  the  affair,  as  soon 
as  she  came  to  be  cognisant  of  it,  in  the  light  of  a 
kindly  warning,  is  plain  ;  for  when,  by  a  singular 
accident,  the  document  containing  the  charges  against 
her  was  dropped  by  one  of  the  council  and  brought 
for  her  perusal,  the  effect  upon  her  was  such  that  the 
King's  physicians  were  summoned  to  attend  her,  and 
Henry  himself,  ignorant  of  the  cause  of  her  illness, 
and  possibly  softened  by  it,  paid  her  a  visit,  and, 
hearing  that  she  entertained  fears  that  she  had 
incurred  his  displeasure,  reassured  her  with  sweet 
and  comfortable  words,  remained  with  her  an  hour, 
and  departed. 

Though  Katherine  had  played  her  part  well,  she 

must  have  been  aware  that  she  stood  on  the  brink  of 

a   precipice,   and  the  ghosts  of  Anne  Boleyn  and 

Katherine  Howard  warned  her  how    little    reliance 

1  Life  of  Henry  VIII.,  p.  561, 


The  Queen  Attacked  45 

could  be  placed  upon  the  King's  fitful  affection. 
Deciding  upon  a  bold  step,  she  sought  his  bed- 
chamber uninvited  after  supper  on  the  following 
evening,  attended  only  by  her  sister,  Lady  Herbert, 
and  with  Lady  Lane,1  her  cousin,  to  carry  the  candle 
before  her.  Henry,  found  in  conversation  with 
his  attendant  gentlemen,  gave  his  wife  a  courteous 
welcome,  entering  at  once — contrary  to  his  custom — 
upon  the  subject  of  religion,  as  if  moved  by  a  desire 
of  gaining  instruction  from  her  replies.  Read  in  the 
light  of  what  Katherine  already  knew,  this  new 
departure  may  well  have  been  viewed  by  her  with 
misgiving  ;  and  she  hastened  to  disclaim  the  position 
the  King  appeared  anxious  to  assign  her.  The 
inferiority  of  women  being  what  it  was,  she  said,  it 
was  for  man  to  supply  from  his  wisdom  what  they 
lacked.  She  being  a  silly  poor  woman,  and  his 
Majesty  so  wise,  how  could  her  judgment  be  of 
use  to  him,  in  all  things  her  only  anchor,  and,  next 
to  God,  her  supreme  head  and  governor  on  earth  ? 

The  King  demurred.  The  attitude  of  sub- 
mission may  have  struck  him  as  unfamiliar. 

"Not  so,  by  St.  Mary,"  he  said.  "  You  are 
become  a  doctor,  Kate,  to  instruct  us,  as  we  take 
it,  and  not  to  be  instructed  or  directed  by  us." 

The  plain  charge  elicited,  it  was  more  easy 
to  reply  to  it.  The  King  had  much  mistaken  her, 

1  Speed,  and    Miss    Strickland   following  him,  read  the   name 
"  Jane." 


46  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Katherine  humbly  declared.  It  had  ever  been  her 
opinion  that  it  was  unseemly  for  the  woman  to 
instruct  and  teach  her  lord  and  husband  ;  her  place 
was  rather  to  learn  of  him.  If  she  had  been  bold 
to  maintain  opinions  differing  from  the  King's,  it 
had  been  to  "  minister  talk  " — to  make  conversation, 
in  modern  language — to  distract  him  from  the 
thought  of  his  infirmities,  as  also  in  the  hope  of  pro- 
fiting by  his  learned  discourse — with  more  of  the 
same  nature. 

Henry,  perhaps  not  sorry  to  be  convinced,  yielded 
to  the  skilful  flattery  thus  administered. 

"  Is  it  even  so,  sweetheart  ?  "  he  said,  a  and  tend 
your  arguments  to  no  worse  end  ?  Then  perfect 
friends  we  are  now  again,"  adding,  as  he  took  her 
in  his  arms  and  kissed  her,  that  her  words  had  done 
him  more  good  than  news  of  a  hundred  thousand 
pounds. 

The  next  day  had  been  fixed  for  the  Queen's 
arrest.  As  the  appointed  hour  approached  the 
King  sought  the  garden,  sending  for  Katherine  to 
attend  him  there.  Accompanied  by  the  same  ladies 
as  on  the  night  before,  the  Queen  obeyed  the 
summons,  and  there,  under  the  July  sun,  the  closing 
scene  of  the  serio-comic  drama  was  played.  Amused, 
it  may  be,  by  the  anticipation  of  his  counsellors' 
discomfiture,  Henry  was  in  good  spirits  and  "  as 
pleasant  as  ever  he  was  in  his  life  before,"  when 
the  Chancellor,  with  forty  of  the  royal  guard, 


Failure  of  the  Plot  47 

appeared,  ready  to  take  possession  of  the  culprit. 
What  passed  between  Wriothesley  and  his  master, 
at  a  little  distance  from  the  rest  of  the  party,  could 
only  be  matter  of  conjecture.  The  Chancellor's 
words,  as  he  knelt  before  the  angry  King,  were  not 
audible  to  the  curious  bystanders,  but  the  King's 
rejoinder,  "  vehemently  whispered,"  was  heard. 
"  Knave,  arrant  knave,  beast  and  fool,"  were  the 
epithets  applied  to  the  crestfallen  official.  After 
which,  he  was  promptly  dismissed. 

Katherine,  whether  or  not  she  divined  the  truth, 
set  herself  to  plead  Wriothesley's  cause.  Ignorance, 
not  will,  was  in  her  opinion  the  probable  origin  of 
what  had  so  manifestly  moved  Henry  to  wrath. 
The  advocacy  of  the  intended  victim  softened  the 
King's  heart  even  more  towards  her. 

"  Ah,  poor  soul,"  he  said,  "  thou  little  knowest 
how  ill  he  deserves  this  grace  at  thy  hands.  On 
my  word,  sweetheart,  he  hath  been  towards  thee  an 
arrant  knave,  and  so  let  him  go."  l 

For  the  moment,  at  least,  the  danger  was  averted, 
and  before  it  recurred  the  despot  was  in  his  grave, 
and  Katherine  was  safe.  It  is  curious  to  observe 
that  in  the  list  of  contents  to  the  Acts  and  Monuments 
the  danger  of  the  Queen  is  pointed  out,  "  and  how 
gloriously  she  was  preserved  by  her  kind  and  loving 
Husband  the  King." 

1  Acts  and  Monuments,    Speed's    Chronicle,    Lord    Herbert  of 
Cherbury,  etc. 


CHAPTER  V 

1546 

The  King  dying — The  Earl  of  Surrey — His  career  and  his  fate — 
The  Duke  of  Norfolk's  escape — Death  of  the  King. 

THE  King  was  dying.  So  much  must  have 
been  apparent  to  all  who  were  in  a  position  to 
judge.  None,  however,  dared  utter  their  thought, 
since  it  had  been  made  an  indictable  offence — the 
act  being  directed  against  soothsayers  and  prophets — 
to  foretell  his  death.  Those  who  wished  him  well 
or  ill,  those  who  would  if  they  could  have  cared 
for  his  soul  and  invited  him  to  make  his  peace  with 
God  before  taking  his  way  hence,  were  alike  con- 
strained to  be  mute.  Before  he  went  to  present 
himself  at  a  court  of  justice  where  king  and  crossing- 
sweeper  stand  side  by  side,  another  judicial  murder 
was  to  be  accomplished,  and  one  more  victim  added 
to  the  number  of  the  accusers  awaiting  him  there. 
This  was  the  poet  Earl  of  Surrey,  heir  to  the 
Dukedom  of  Norfolk. 

Surrey  was  not  more  than  thirty.  But  much  had 
been  crowded,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time, 
into  his  short  and  brilliant  life.  Brought  up  during 
his  childhood  at  Windsor  as  the  companion  of  the 

48 


The  Earl  of  Surrey  49 

King's  illegitimate  son,  the  Duke  of  Richmond — 
who  subsequently  married  Mary  Howard,  his 
friend's  sister — Surrey  had  suffered  many  vicis- 
situdes of  fortune;  had  been  in  confinement  on 
a  suspicion  of  sympathy  with  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace  ;  and  in  1 543  had  again  fallen  into  disgrace, 
charged  with  breaking  windows  in  London  by 
shooting  pebbles  at  them.  To  this  accusation  he 
pleaded  guilty,  explaining,  in  a  satire  directed  against 
the  citizens  of  London,  that  his  object  had  been 
to  prepare  them  for  the  divine  retribution  due  for 
their  irreligion  and  wickedness  : 

This  made  me  with  a  reckless  brest, 
To  wake  thy  sluggards  with  my  bowe; 

A  figure  of  the  Lord's  behest, 

Whose  scourge  for  synne  the  Scriptures  shew. 

He  can  scarcely  have  expected  that  the  plea 
would  have  availed,  and  he  expiated  his  offence  by 
a  short  imprisonment,  chiefly  of  importance  as  accen- 
tuating his  hatred  towards  the  Seymours,  who  were 
held  responsible  for  it.1 

In  the  course  of  the  same  year  he  was  more 
worthily  employed  in  fighting  the  battles  of  England 
abroad,  where  his  conduct  elicited  a  cordial  tribute 
of  praise  from  Charles  V.  "  Our  cousin,  the  Earl 
of  Surrey,"  wrote  the  Emperor  to  Henry,  on 
Surrey's  return  to  England,  would  supply  him  with 
an  account  of  all  that  had  taken  place.  "  We  will 

1  Bapst,  Deux  Gentilshommes  Poeles,  p.  275. 

4 


5°  Lady  Jane  Grey 

therefore  only  add  that  he  has  given  good  proof 
in  the  army  of  whom  he  is  the  son  ;  and  that  he 
will  not  fail  to  follow  in  the  steps  of  his  father  and 
forefathers,  with  si  gentil  cceur  and  so  much  dexterity 
that  there  is  no  need  to  instruct  him  in  aught,  and 
you  will  give  him  no  command  that  he  does  not 
know  how  to  execute."  * 

Two  years  later  Surrey  was  in  command  of  the 
English  forces  at  Boulogne,  there  suffered  defeat, 
and  was,  though  not  as  an  ostensible  result  of  his 
failure,  superseded  by  his  rival  and  enemy,  the  Earl 
of  Hertford,  brother  of  the  Admiral  and  head  of 
the  Seymour  clan. 

Such  was  the  record  of  the  man  who  was 
to  fall  a  prey  to  the  malice  and  jealousy  of  the 
opposite  party  in  the  State.  His  noble  birth,  his 
long  descent,  and  his  brilliant  gifts,  were  so  many 
causes  tending  to  make  him  hated  and  feared  ; 
besides  which,  even  amongst  men  in  whom  humility 
was  a  rare  virtue,  he  was  noted  for  his  pride — "  the 
most  foolish,  proud  boy,"  as  he  was  once  described, 
"  that  is  in  England."  When  he  came  to  be  tried 
for  his  life  those  of  his  own  house  came  forward 
to  bear  witness  to  the  contempt  he  had  displayed 
towards  inferiors  in  rank,  if  not  in  power.  "  These 
new  men,"  he  had  said  scornfully — it  was  his  sister 
who  played  the  part  of  his  accuser — "  these  new  men 
loved  no  nobility,  and  if  God  called  away  the  King 
1  Bapst,  Deux  Gentikhommes  Poetes)  p.  287. 


The  Earl  of  Surrey  51 

they  should  smart  for  it."  l  None  of  the  King's 
Council,  he  was  reported  to  have  declared,  loved 
him,  because  they  were  not  of  noble  birth,  and  also 
because  he  believed  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar. 2 

In  verse  he  had  likewise  made  his  sentiments 
clear,  comparing  himself,  much  to  his  advantage, 
with  the  men  he  hated. 

Behold  our  kyndes  how  that  we  differ  farre  ; 
I  seke  my  foes,  and  you  your  frendes  do  threten  still  with  wane. 
I  fawne  where  I  am  fled  ;  you  slay  that  sekes  to  you ; 
I  can  devour  no  yelding  pray  ;  you  kill  where  you  subdue. 
My  kinde  is  to  desire  the  honoure  of  the  field, 
And  you  with  bloode  to  slake  your  thirst  on  such  as  to  you  yeld. 

It  was  a  natural  and  inevitable  consequence  of  his 
attitude  towards  them  that  the  "  new  men  "  hated 
and  sought  the  ruin  of  the  poet  who  held  them  up 
publicly  to  scorn  ;  and  if  his  great  popularity  in  the 
country  was  in  some  sort  a  shield,  it  was  also  calcu- 
lated to  prove  perilous,  by  giving  rise  to  suspicion 
and  distrust  on  the  part  of  a  sovereign  prone  to 
indulge  in  these  sentiments,  and  thereby  to  render 
the  success  of  his  foes  more  easy. 

The  Seymours  were  aware  that  their  time  was  short. 
With  the  King's  approaching  death  the  question  of 
the  guardianship  of  the  successor  to  the  throne  was 
becoming  daily  more  momentous  ;  and  when  pride 
and  vanity  on  the  part  of  the  Earl,  together  with 
treachery  on  that  of  friends  and  kin,  placed  a  danger- 

1  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  Life  of  Henry  VIII.,  p.  564. 
1  Ibid.,  p.  563. 


52  Lady  Jane  Grey 

ous  weapon  in  the  hands  of  his  opponents,  they  were 
prompt  to  use  it. 

During  the  summer  there  was  nothing  to  serve  as 
a  presage  of  his  fate  ;  and  so  late  as  August  he  took 
part  in  the  magnificent  reception  accorded  to  the  French 
ambassadors,  successfully  vindicating  on  that  occasion 
his  right  to  precedence  over  the  Earl  of  Hertford, 
with  whom  he  was  as  usual  at  open  enmity. 

A  new  cause  of  quarrel  had  been  added  to  the  old. 
The  Duke  of  Norfolk,  developing,  as  age  crept  upon 
him,  an  unwonted  desire  for  peace  and  amity,  had 
lately  devised  a  method  of  terminating  the  feud 
between  his  heir  and  the  Seymour  brothers,  so 
powerful,  by  reason  of  their  kinship  to  Prince 
Edward,  in  the  State.  Not  only  had  he  revived  a 
project  for  uniting  his  widowed  daughter,  the  Duchess 
of  Richmond,  to  Thomas  Seymour,  Lord  Admiral, 
Katherine  Parr's  former  lover,  but  had  made  a  further 
proposal  to  cement  the  alliance  between  the  rival 
houses  by  marrying  three  of  his  grandchildren  to 
Hertford's  children. 

The  old  man's  scheme  was  not  destined  to  succeed. 
Whether  or  not  the  Seymours  would  have  con- 
sented to  forget  ancient  grudges,  Surrey  remained 
irreconcilable,  flatly  refusing  his  consent  to  his  father's 
plan.  So  long  as  he  lived,  he  declared,  no  son  of 
his  should  ever  wed  Lord  Hertford's  daughter  ;  and 
when  his  sister — perhaps  not  insensible  to  Thomas 
Seymour's  attractions — showed  an  inclination  to 


Surrey  and  his  Sister  53 

yield  to  the  Duke's  wishes,  he  addressed  bitter  taunts 
to  her.  Since  Seymour  was  in  favour  with  the 
King,  he  told  her  ironically,  let  her  conclude  the 
farce  of  a  marriage,  and  play  in  England  the  part 
which  had,  in  France,  belonged  to  the  Duchesse 
d'Etampes,  Francis  I.'s  mistress. 

Mary  Howard  did  not  marry  the  Admiral,  but, 
possibly  sharing  her  brother's  pride,  she  never  forgot 
or  forgave  the  insult  he  had  offered  her  ;  and, 
repeating  the  sarcasm  as  if  it  had  been  advice 
tendered  in  all  seriousness,  did  her  best  to  damn 
the  Earl  in  his  day  of  extremity.  In  a  contem- 
porary Spanish  chronicle  further  particulars,  true 
or  false,  of  the  quarrel  are  added.  It  is  there 
related  that,  grieved  at  the  tales  that  had  reached 
him  of  his  sister's  lightness  of  conduct,  Surrey  had 
taken  upon  himself  to  administer  a  brotherly  rebuke. 

"  Sister,"  he  said,  "  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  what 
I  do  about  you  ;  and  if  it  be  true,  I  will  never  speak 
to  you  again,  but  will  be  your  mortal  enemy."  l 

The  Duchess  was  not  a  woman  to  accept  the 
admonition  meekly,  and  it  was  she  who  was  to  prove, 
in  the  sequel,  the  more  dangerous  foe  of  the  two. 

The  offence  for  which  Surrey  nominally  suffered 
the  capital  penalty  seems  trivial  enough.  According 
to  the  story  told  by  contemporary  authorities — 
and  it  suits  well  with  his  overweening  pride  in 

1  Chronicle  of  King  Henry   VIII.  of  England  (translated   by 
Martin  Hume),  p.  182. 


54  Lady  Jane  Grey 

his  ancient  blood  and  royal  descent — he  caused  a 
painting  to  be  executed  wherein  the  Norfolk  arms 
were  joined  to  those  of  the  royal  house,  the  motto 
Honi  soit  qui  mal  y  pense  being  replaced  by  the  enig- 
matical device  Till  then  thus^  and  the  whole  concealed 
by  a  canvas  placed  above  it. 

The  very  fact  of  the  secrecy  observed  betrays  the 
Earl's  consciousness  that  he  had  committed  an  im- 
prudence. He  was  guilty  of  a  worse  when,  not- 
withstanding the  terms  upon  which  he  stood  with 
his  sister,  he  made  her  his  confidant  in  the  matter. 
The  Duchess,  in  her  turn,  informed  her  father  of 
what  had  been  done,  but  to  the  Duke's  remonstrances 
Surrey  turned  a  deaf  ear.  His  ancestors,  he  replied, 
had  borne  these  arms,  and  he  was  much  better  than 
they.  Powerless  to  move  him,  his  father,  reiterating 
his  fears  that  it  might  furnish  occasion  for  a  charge 
of  treason,  begged  that  the  affair  might  be  kept 
strictly  private,  to  which  Surrey  readily  agreed. 
Both  men,  however,  had  reckoned  without  the 
woman  who  was  daughter  to  the  one,  sister  to  the 
other.  Whether,  as  some  aver,1  the  Duchess  took 
the  step  of  betraying  her  brother  directly  to  the  King, 
or  merely  corroborated  the  accusations  preferred 
against  him  by  others — Sir  Richard  Southwell,  a 
friend  of  Surrey's  childhood,  being  the  first  to  de- 
nounce him2 — the  matter  soon  became  known,  the 

1  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.  (tr.  by  Martin  Hume),  p.  152. 

2  Bapst,  Deux  Gentilshommes  Poetes,  p.  346. 


From  an  engraving  by  Scriven  after  a  painting  by  Holbein. 

HENRY    HOWARD,    EARL   OF    SURREY. 


Surrey  Tried  and  Condemned  55 

Earl  was  examined  at  length,  and  by  the  middle  of 
December  was,  with  his  father,  lodged  in  the  Tower 
on  the  charge  of  treason,  the  assumption  of  the 
royal  arms  being  viewed  as  an  implied  claim  to  the 
succession  to  the  throne,  and  as  a  menace  to  the  little 
heir.  Hertford  and  his  brother  were  at  hand  to 
exaggerate  the  peril  to  be  feared  from  his  ambition  ; 
and  the  affection  of  the  populace,  who,  as  he  was 
taken  through  the  city  to  his  place  of  captivity,  made 
great  lamentation,1  was  not  fitted  to  allay  appre- 
hension. A  month  later  the  Earl's  trial  took  place 
at  the  Guildhall,  crowds  filling  the  streets  as  he 
went  by.  Brought  before  his  judges,  he  made  so 
spirited  a  defence  that  Holinshed  admits  that  "  if 
he  had  tempered  his  answers  with  such  modesty  as 
he  showed  token  of  a  right  perfect  and  ready  wit, 
his  praise  had  been  the  greater  "  ;  and  though  neither 
wit  nor  modesty  was  likely  to  avail  to  save  him, 
it  was  not  without  long  deliberation  that  the  jury 
agreed  to  declare  him  guilty. 

Their  verdict  was  pronounced  by  his  implacable 
enemy,  Hertford  ;  being  greeted  by  the  people  with 
"  a  great  tumult,  and  it  was  a  long  while  before  they 
could  be  silenced,  although  they  cried  out  to  them 
to  be  quiet."  2 

The  prisoner  received  what  was  practically 
sentence  of  death  in  characteristic  fashion.  His 

1  Grey  Friars'  Chronicle,  p.  52. 

2  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.  (tr.  by  Martin  Hume),  p.  147. 


56  Lady  Jane  Grey 

enemies  might  have  vanquished  him,  but  he  could 
still  despise  them,  still  assert  his  inborn  superiority 
to  his  victors. 

"  Of  what  have  you  found  me  guilty  ? "  he 
demanded.  "  Surely  you  will  find  no  law  that 
justifies  you  ;  but  I  know  that  the  King  wants  to 
get  rid  of  the  noble  blood  around  him,  and  to 
employ  none  but  low  people."  1 

On  January  1 9,  not  a  week  after  his  trial,  the  poet, 
King  Henry  VIII. 's  latest  victim,  was  beheaded  on 
Tower  Hill.  It  was  not  the  fault  of  Henry's  advisers 
that  his  aged  father  did  not  follow  him  to  the  grave. 
To  have  cleared  Surrey  out  of  their  path  was  much  ; 
but  it  was  not  enough.  The  Duke's  heir  gone, 
there  were  many  eager  to  share  amongst  themselves 
the  Norfolk  spoils  ;  Henry  was  ready  to  send  his 
old  servant  to  join  his  son  ;  and  only  the  King's 
death,  on  the  very  night  before  the  day  appointed 
for  the  Duke's  execution,  saved  him  from  sharing 
Surrey's  fate.  On  January  28, 1547,  nine  days  after 
the  Earl  had  been  slain,  Henry  was  dead. 

The  end  can  have  taken  few  people  by  surprise. 
Whether  it  was  unexpected  by  the  King  none  can 
tell.  His  will  was  made — a  will  paving  the  way 
for  the  misfortunes  of  one  of  his  kin,  and  pre- 
paring the  scaffold  upon  which  Lady  Jane  Grey  was 
to  die  ;  since,  tacitly  setting  aside  the  claims  of  his 
elder  sister,  Margaret  of  Scotland,  and  her  heirs,  he 

1  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.  (tr.  by  Martin  Hume),  p.  148. 


The  King  Moribund  57 

provided  that,  after  his  own  children,  Edward,  Mary, 
and  Elizabeth,  the  descendants  of  Mary  Tudor,  of 
whom  Jane  was,  in  the  younger  generation,  the  repre- 
sentative, should  stand  next  in  the  order  of  succession 
to  the  throne.  It  was  the  first  occasion  upon  which 
Lady  Jane's  position  had  been  explicitly  defined, 
and  was  the  prelude  of  the  tragedy  that  was  to 
follow.  Should  the  unrepealed  statutes  declaring 
the  King's  daughters  illegitimate  be  permitted  in  the 
future  to  weigh  against  his  present  provisions  in 
their  favour,  his  great  niece  or  her  mother  would, 
in  the  event  of  Prince  Edward's  death,  become  heirs 
to  the  crown. 

For  Henry  the  opportunity  of  cancelling,  had  it 
been  possible,  the  injustices  of  a  lifetime  was  over. 
"  Soon  after  the  death  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey," 
writes  the  Spanish  chronicler,  "  the  King  felt  un- 
well ;  and,  as  he  was  a  wise  man,  he  called  his 
council  together,  and  said  to  them,  *  Gentlemen,  I  am 
unwell,  and  cannot  tell  when  God  may  call  me,  so 
I  wish  to  put  my  soul  in  order,  and  to  reward  my 
servants  for  what  they  have  done.' ' 

The  writer  was  probably  drawing  upon  his  imagi- 
nation, and  presenting  rather  a  picture  of  what,  in 
his  opinion,  ought  to  have  taken  place  than  of  what 
truly  happened.  It  quickly  became  patent  to  all 
that  the  end  was  at  hand  ;  but,  though  the  physicians 
represented  to  those  about  the  dying  man  that  it 
was  fitting  that  he  should  be  warned  of  his  condition, 


5  8  Lady  Jane  Grey 

most  of  them  shrank  from  the  task.  At  length  Sir 
Anthony  Denny  took  the  performance  of  the  duty 
upon  himself,  exhorting  his  master  boldly  to  pre- 
pare for  death,  "  calling  himself  to  remembrance  of 
his  former  life,  and  to  call  upon  God  in  Christ 
betimes  for  grace  and  mercy." 

What  followed  must  again  be  largely  matter  of 
conjecture,  the  various  accounts  being  coloured 
according  to  the  theological  views  of  the  narrator. 
It  is  possible  that,  feeling  the  end  near,  and  calling 
to  mind,  as  Denny  bade  him,  the  life  he  had  led, 
Henry  may  have  been  visited  by  one  of  those  death- 
bed repentances  so  mercilessly  described  by  Raleigh  : 
"  For  what  do  they  do  otherwise  that  die  this  kind 
of  well-dying,  but  say  to  God  as  followeth  :  We 
beseech  Thee,  O  God,  that  all  the  falsehoods,  for- 
swearings,  and  treacheries  of  our  lives  past  may  be 
pleasing  unto  Thee  ;  that  Thou  wilt,  for  our  sakes 
(that  have  had  no  leisure  to  do  anything  for  Thine) 
change  Thy  nature  (though  impossible)  and  forget 
to  be  a  just  God  ;  that  Thou  wilt  love  injuries  and 
oppressions,  call  ambition  wisdom,  and  charity  foolish- 
ness." 2  Into  the  secrets  of  the  deathbed  none  can 
penetrate.  Some  say  the  King's  remorse,  for  the 
execution  of  Anne  Boleyn  in  particular,  was  genuine  ; 
others  that  he  was  haunted  by  visionary  fears  and 
terrors.  In  the  Spanish  chronicle  quoted  above,  it 

1  Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments,  vol.  v.,  p.  689. 

2  History  of  the  World. 


Henry's  Death  59 

is  asserted  that,  sending  for  "  Madam  Mary,"  his 
injured  daughter,  he  confessed  that  fortune — he 
might  have  said  himself — had  been  hard  against 
her,  that  he  grieved  not  to  have  married  her  as  he 
wished,  and  prayed  her  further  to  be  a  mother  to 
the  Prince,  "  for  look,  he  is  very  little  yet." 

The  same  authority  has  also  drawn  what  one 
must  believe  to  be  an  imaginary  picture  of  a  final 
and  affecting  interview  between  Katherine  and  her 
husband,  "  when  the  good  Queen  could  not  answer 
for  weeping."1  His  account  is  uncorroborated  by 
other  evidence,  and  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
she  can  have  felt  genuine  sorrow  for  the  death  of  a 
man  whose  life  was  a  perpetual  menace  to  her  own. 

According  to  Foxe,  when  Denny,  the  courageous 
servant  who  had  warned  him  of  his  danger,  asked 
whether  he  would  see  no  learned  divine,  the  King 
replied  that,  were  any  such  to  be  called,  it  should 
be  Cranmer,  but  him  not  yet.  He  would  first  sleep, 
and  then,  according  as  he  felt,  would  advise  upon 
the  matter.  When,  an  hour  or  two  later,  finding 
his  weakness  increasing,  he  sent  for  the  Archbishop, 
it  was  too  late  for  speech.  "  Notwithstanding  .  .  . 
he,  reaching  his  hand  to  Dr.  Cranmer,  did  hold  him 
fast,"  and,  desired  by  the  latter  to  give  some  token 
of  trust  in  God,  he  "  did  wring  his  hand  in  his  as 
hard  as  he  could,  and  so,  shortly  after,  departed."  2 

1  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.  (tr.  by  Martin  Hume),  p.  152. 
*  Acts  and  Monuments t  vol.  v.,  p.  689. 


CHAPTER  VI 
1547 

Triumph  of  the  new  men — Somerset  made  Protector — Coronation  of 
Edward  VI. — Measures  of  ecclesiastical  reform — The  Seymour 
brothers — Lady  Jane  Grey  entrusted  to  the  Admiral — The 
Admiral  and  Elizabeth — His  marriage  to  Katherine. 

WITH  the  death  of  the  King  a  change,  com- 
plete and  sudden,  passed  over  the  face  of 
affairs.  So  long  as  Henry  drew  breath  all  was 
uncertain  ;  security  there  was  none.  The  men  who 
were  in  favour  to-day  might  be  disgraced  to-morrow, 
and  with  regard  to  the  government  of  the  country 
and  the  guardianship  of  the  new  sovereign  all 
depended  upon  the  state  of  mind  in  which  death 
might  find  him.  Happening  when  it  actually  did, 
it  left  the  "  new  men,"  the  objects  of  Surrey's 
contempt,  triumphant.  Norfolk  was  in  prison  on 
a  capital  charge  ;  his  son  was  dead.  Gardiner  had 
fallen  into  disgrace  at  the  same  time  as  the  Howards, 
and,  though  averting  a  worse  fate  by  a  timely  show 
of  submission,  had  never  regained  his  power,  his 
name  being  omitted  by  Henry  from  the  list  of  his 
executors,  all,  with  the  exception  of  Wriothesley 
the  Chancellor,  adherents  of  the  Seymours  and  for  the 

60 


Triumph  of  the  New  Men  61 

most  part  pledged  to  the  support  of  the  Protestant 
interest.  Henry  had  acted  deliberately. 

"  My  Lord  of  Winchester — I  think  by  negligence 
—is  left  out  of  Your  Majesty's  will,"  said  Sir 
Anthony  Browne,  kneeling  by  the  King's  side,  and 
recalling  to  the  dying  man  the  Bishop's  long  service 
and  great  abilities.  But  Henry  refused  to  reconsider 
the  question. 

"  Hold  your  peace,"  he  returned.  "  I  remembered 
him  well  enough,  and  of  good  purpose  have  left  him 
out  ;  for  surely,  if  he  were  in  my  testament,  and  one 
of  you,  he  would  cumber  you  all,  and  you  should 
never  rule  him,  he  is  of  so  troublesome  a  nature."1 

Gardiner  removed,  there  was  no  one  left  of 
sufficient  influence  to  combat  the  Seymours.  Their 
day  was  come. 

The  King's  death  had  taken  place  on  Friday, 
January  28.  The  Council,  for  reasons  of  their  own, 
kept  the  news  secret  until  the  following  Monday, 
when,  amidst  a  scene  of  strong  emotion,  real  or 
simulated,  the  fact  was  made  known  to  Lords  and 
Commons,  Parliament  was  dissolved,  and  the  Com- 
mons dismissed,  the  peers  staying  in  London  to 
welcome  their  new  sovereign.  On  February  i  a  fresh 
and  crowning  success  was  scored  by  the  dominant 
party,  and  Hertford — Wriothesley's  being  the  sole 
dissentient  voice  in  the  governing  body — was  made 
Protector  and  guardian  of  the  King.  That  afternoon 
1  Acts  and  Monuments,  vol.  v.,  p.  691. 


62  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Edward  received  the  homage  of  the  Lords  spiritual 
and  temporal,  and  the  new  reign  was  inaugurated. 

On  the  2Oth  of  the  same  month  the  coronation 
took  place  with  all  magnificence.  On  the  previous 
day  the  nine-year-old  King  had  been  brought 
u  through  his  city  of  London  in  most  royal  and 
goodly  wise "  to  Westminster,  the  crafts  standing 
on  one  side  of  the  streets  to  see  him  pass,  priests 
and  clerks  on  the  other,  with  crosses  and  censers, 
waiting  to  cense  the  new  sovereign  as  he  went  by. 
The  sword  of  state  was  borne  by  Dorset,  as 
Constable  of  England,  and  his  daughter,  the  same 
age  as  the  King,  was  probably  a  witness  of  the 
splendid  pageant  and  watched  her  cousin  as,  in  his 
gown  of  cloth  of  silver  embroidered  in  gold  and  with 
his  white  velvet  jerkin  and  cape,  he  rode  through  the 
city.1 

At  the  coronation  on  the  following  day  Dorset 
again  occupied  a  prominent  place,  standing  by  the 
King  and  carrying  the  sceptre,  Somerset  bearing  the 
crown.  Cranmer,  with  no  longer  anything  to  fear 
from  his  enemies,  performed  the  ceremony  and  de- 
livered an  address  that  can  have  left  no  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  any  of  his  hearers,  if  such  there  were,  who 
had  clung  to  the  hope  that  a  moderate  policy  would 
be  pursued  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  of  what  was  to 
be  expected  from  the  men  who  had  in  their  hands 
the  little  head  of  Church  and  State.  As  God's 

1  Literary  Remains  of  Edward  VI.,  Roxburgh  Club,  ed.  Nichols. 


Edward's  Accession  63 

Vice-gerent  and  Christ's  Vicar,  Edward  Tudor  was 
exhorted  to  see  that  God  was  worshipped,  idolatry 
destroyed,  the  tyranny  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
banished,  and  images  removed,  the  hybrid  ceremony 
being  concluded  by  a  solemn  high  mass,  Cranmer 
acting  as  celebrant. 

Signal  success  had  attended  the  inauguration  of 
the  new  regime.  Dissentients  were  almost  non- 
existent. Wriothesley,  now  Earl  of  Southampton, 
remained  the  solitary  genuine  adherent  of  the  old 
faith  belonging  to  the  Council.  His  lack  of  caution 
in  putting  the  great  seal  into  commission  without  the 
authority  of  his  colleagues  afforded  them  an  excuse 
for  ousting  him  from  his  post  of  Chancellor  ;  he  was 
compelled  to  resign  his  office,  and  received  orders  to 
confine  himself  to  his  house,  whilst  Hertford,  become 
Duke  of  Somerset,  took  advantage  of  his  absence 
to  obtain  letters  patent  by  which  he  became  virtually 
omnipotent  in  the  State. 

The  earlier  months  of  his  government  were 
chiefly  devoted  to  carrying  through  drastic  measures 
of  ecclesiastical  reform,  in  which  he  was  aided  by 
conviction  in  some,  and  cupidity  in  others,  of  his 
colleagues,  eager  to  benefit  by  the  spoliation  of  the 
Church.  With  the  education  of  the  King  in  the 
hands  of  the  Protector,  they  could  count  upon 
immunity  when  he  should  come  to  an  age  to  execute 
justice  on  his  own  account,  and  the  work  went 
swiftly  forward.  Gardiner,  it  was  true,  offered  a 


64  Lady  Jane  Grey 

determined  opposition.  If  he  had  pandered  to  his 
old  master,  he  vindicated  his  character  for  courage 
by  braving  the  resentment  of  the  men  now  in  power, 
and  paid  for  his  boldness  by  imprisonment. 

By  September  the  internal  affairs  of  the  kingdom 
were  on  a  sufficiently  settled  footing  to  allow  the 
Protector  to  turn  his  attention  to  Scotland.  Crossing 
the  border  with  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men,  he 
conducted  in  person  a  short  campaign  ending  with 
the  victory  of  Pinkie,  after  which,  to  the  surprise  of 
those  who  expected  to  see  him  follow  up  his  success, 
he  hurried  home. 

His  hasty  retreat  was  ascribed  to  different  causes. 
Some  supposed  him  eager  to  be  again  at  his  post, 
with  the  prestige  of  his  victory  still  fresh.  By 
others  it  was  imagined  that  he  feared  the  intrigues 
of  his  enemies,  and  in  especial  of  his  brother  the 
Admiral.  Nor  would  such  uneasiness  have  been  with- 
out justification.  So  long  as  their  combined  strength 
was  necessary  to  enable  them  to  stand  against 
their  enemies,  the  two  had  made  common  cause. 
Somerset  was  popular  in  the  country  ;  the  nobles 
preferred  the  Admiral.  For  both  a  certain  distrust 
was  entertained  by  those  who  felt  that  "  their  new 
lustre  did  dim  the  light  of  men  honoured  with  ancient 
nobility.1 "  The  consciousness  of  insecurity  kept 
them  at  one  with  each  other.  Become  all-powerful 
in  the  State,  jealousy  and  passion  sundered  them. 

1  Hayward's  Life  of  Edward  VI.,  p.  82. 


Katherine  Parr  a  Widow  65 

Ambitious,  proud,  and  resentful  of  the  Duke's 
assumption  of  undivided  authority,  Seymour  had 
quickly  shown  an  intention  of  undermining  his 
brother's  position  in  the  country,  with  his  hold 
upon  the  King,  and  the  Protector  may  reasonably 
have  felt  that  it  was  neither  safe  nor  politic,  so  far 
as  his  personal  interest  was  concerned,  to  remain  too 
long  at  a  distance  from  the  centre  of  government. 

To  the  jealousies  natural  to  ambitious  men 
other  causes  of  dissension  had  been  added.  These 
were  due  to  the  position  achieved  by  Seymour  some 
months  previous  to  the  Scotch  campaign  by  his 
marriage  with  the  King's  widow. 

The  conduct  of  Katherine  at  this  juncture  is 
allowed  by  her  warmest  partisans  to  furnish  matter 
for  regret.  Little  information  is  forthcoming  con- 
cerning her  movements  at  the  time  of  the  King's 
death  ;  nor  does  any  blame  attach  to  her  if  she 
regarded  that  event  in  the  light  of  a  timely  release, 
an  emancipation  from  a  condition  of  perpetual  unrest 
and  anxiety.  In  any  case  the  age  was  not  one 
when  overmuch  time  was  squandered  in  mourning, 
real  or  conventional,  for  the  dead  ;  and,  judging 
by  the  sequel,  it  is  possible  that,  even  before  the 
final  close  was  put  to  her  married  life,  she  may 
have  been  contemplating  the  recovery  of  her  lost 
lover.  It  is  said  that  when  the  Lord  Admiral  paid 
her  his  formal  visit  of  condolence  she  not  only 
received  him  in  private,  but  candidly  confessed  how 

5 


66  Lady  Jane  Grey 

slight  was  her  reason  to   regret    a    man  who    had 
done  her  the  wrong  of  appropriating  her  youth.1 

If  the  conversation  is  correctly  reported,  Seymour 
would  augur  well  of  the  Queen's  willingness,  so  far  as 
was  possible,  to  make  up  for  lost  time.  But  he  was 
not  himself  inclined  to  be  hurried.  Intent  upon 
securing  every  means  within  his  power  to  assist  him 
in  the  coming  struggle  for  pre-eminence,  he  did 
not  at  once  convince  himself  that  it  was  his  best 
policy  to  become  the  husband  of  the  King's  step- 
mother, and  that  a  more  advantageous  alliance  was 
not  within  his  grasp. 

Other  matters  were  also  occupying  his  attention  ; 
and  it  was  now  that  Lady  Jane  Grey,  unfortunately 
a  factor  of  importance  in  the  political  world,  was 
brought  prominently  forward  and  that  her  small 
figure  comes  first  into  view  in  connection  with  the 
competition  for  power  and  influence. 

Although  allied  with  the  royal  house,  and  in  a 
position  to  share  in  some  sort  Surrey's  contempt 
for  the  parvenu  nobility  of  whom  the  Seymours  were 
representative,  Dorset  and  the  King's  uncles,  agreed 
upon  the  crucial  matter  of  religion,  were  on  good 
terms  ;  and  Henry  was  no  sooner  dead  than  it 
occurred  to  the  Admiral  that  he  might  steal  a  march 
upon  his  brother  and  secure  to  himself  a  point  of 
vantage  in  the  contest  between  them,  by  obtaining 
the  custody  for  the  present,  and  the  disposal  in  the 
future,  of  the  marquis's  eldest  daughter. 
1  Leti,  Vie  de  la  Reine  Elizabeth,  p.  166. 


Thomas  Seymour  and  Dorset          67 

He  lost  no  time  in  attempting  to  compass  his 
purpose.  Immediately  after  the  late  King's  death 
— according  to  statements  made  when,  at  a  later 
date,  Seymour  had  fallen  upon  evil  times — Lord 
Dorset  received  a  visit  from  a  dependant  of  the 
Admiral's,  named  Harrington,  and  the  negotiations 
ending  in  the  transference  of  the  practical  guardian- 
ship of  the  child  to  Seymour  were  set  on  foot. 

Harrington  was,  it  would  seem,  the  bearer  of  a 
letter  from  his  master,  containing  the  proposal  that 
Lady  Jane  should  be  committed  to  his  care  ;  and 
found  the  Marquis,  on  this  first  occasion,  "  somewhat 
cold "  in  the  matter.  The  messenger,  however, 
proceeded  to  urge  the  wishes  of  his  principal, 
supporting  them  by  arguments  well  calculated  to 
appeal  to  an  ambitious  man.  He  reported  that  he 
had  heard  Seymour  say  "that  Lady  Jane  was  as 
handsome  as  any  lady  in  England,  and  that,  if 
the  King's  Majesty,  when  he  came  of  age,  would 
marry  within  the  realm,  it  was  as  likely  he  would 
be  there  as  in  any  other  place,  and  that  he  [the 
Admiral]  would  wish  it."  1 

Such  was  Harrington's  deposition.  Dorset's 
account  of  the  interview  is  to  much  the  same 
effect.  Visiting  him  at  his  house  at  Westminster 
"immediately  after  the  King's  death,"  he  stated 
that  Seymour's  envoy  had  advised  him  to  be 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers.  It  is  difficult  to  distinguish  between 
statements  relating  to  the  negotiations  with  regard  to  Lady  Jane 
carried  on  at  this  date,  and  those  taking  place  eighteen  months  later. 


68  Lady  Jane  Grey 

content  that  his  daughter  should  be  with  the 
Admiral,  assuring  him  that  he  would  find  means 
to  place  her  in  marriage  much  to  his  comfort. 

"  With  whom  ? "  demanded  Dorset,  plainly  anxious 
to  obtain  an  explicit  pledge. 

"  Marry,"  answered  Harrington,  "  I  doubt  not 
you  shall  see  him  marry  her  to  the  King." 

As  a  consequence  of  this  conversation  Dorset 
called  upon  the  Admiral  at  Seymour  House  a  week 
later,  and  as  the  two  walked  in  the  garden  an 
agreement  was  arrived  at,  and  her  father  was  won 
over  to  send  for  the  child,  who  thereafter  remained 
in  the  Admiral's  house  "  continually "  until  the 
death  of  the  Queen.1 

It  was  a  strange  arrangement ;  the  more  so  that 
it  was  evidently  concluded  before  the  marriage  of 
the  late  King's  widow  to  Seymour,  a  man  one  would 
imagine  to  have  been  in  no  wise  fit  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  sole  guardianship  of  the  little  girl.  But 
Dorset  was  ambitious  ;  the  favour  of  the  King's 
uncle,  with  the  possibility  of  securing  the  King 
himself  as  a  son-in-law,  was  not  lightly  to  be  forgone  ; 
and  the  sacrifice  of  Jane  was  made,  not  for  the  last 
time,  to  her  father's  interest. 

To  the  child  herself  the  change  from  the  Bradgate 

fields  and  parks  to  the  London  home  of  her  new 

guardian  must  have  been  abrupt.     Yet,  though  she 

may  have  felt  bewildered  and  desolate  in  her  new 

1  Tytler,  England  under  Edward  VI.  and  Mary,  vol  i. 


Seymour,  Lady  Jane's  Guardian         69 

surroundings  and  separated  from  her  two  little 
sisters,  her  training  at  home  had  not  been  of  a 
description  to  cause  her  overmuch  regret  at  a  parting 
from  those  responsible  for  it.  It  has  been  said  that 
every  child  should  dwell  for  a  time  within  an  Eden 
of  its  own,  and  with  many  men  and  women  the 
recollection  of  the  unclouded  irrational  joy  belonging 
to  a  childhood  surrounded  by  love  and  tenderness 
may  have  constituted  in  after  years  a  pledge  and 
a  guarantee  that  happiness  is  possible,  and  that,  in 
spite  of  sin  and  sorrow  and  suffering,  the  world  is 
still,  as  God  saw  it  at  creation,  very  good.  The 
garden  in  which  little  Jane's  childhood  was  passed 
was  one  of  a  different  nature.  "  No  lady,"  says 
Fuller  pitifully,  "  which  led  so  many  pious,  lived  so 
few  pleasant  days,  whose  soul  was  never  out  of  the 
nonage  of  affliction  till  Death  made  her  of  full  years 
to  inherit  happiness,  so  severe  her  education."  Her 
father's  house  was  to  her  a  house  of  correction.1 

Such  being  the  case,  the  less  regret  can  have 
mingled  with  the  natural  excitement  of  a  child 
brought  into  wholly  new  conditions  of  life,  and 
treated  perhaps  for  the  first  time  as  a  person  of 
importance.  Nor  was  it  long  before  circumstances 
provided  her  with  a  home  to  which  no  exception 
could  be  taken.  By  June  Seymour's  marriage 
with  the  Queen-Dowager  had  been  made  public. 

In  the  interval,  short  though  it  was,  that  elapsed 
1  Fuller's  Worthies. 


70  Lady  Jane  Grey 

between  the  King's  death  and  the  union  of  his 
widow  and  the  Admiral,  Seymour  had  had  time, 
before  committing  himself  to  a  renewal  of  his  suit  to 
Katherine,  to  attempt  a  more  brilliant  match.  Henry 
had  been  scarcely  a  month  dead  before  he  addressed 
a  letter,  couched  in  the  correct  terms  of  conventional 
love-making,  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  now  four- 
teen. He  wished,  he  wrote,  that  it  were  possible  to 
communicate  to  the  missive  the  virtue  of  rousing  in 
her  heart  as  much  favour  towards  him  as  his  was  full 
of  love  for  her,  proceeding  to  pay  the  customary 
tribute  to  the  beauty  and  charm,  together  with 
"  a  certain  fascination  I  cannot  resist,"  by  which  he 
had  been  subjugated. 

Elizabeth,  at  fourteen,  was  keen-witted  enough 
to  estimate  aright  the  advantages  offered  by  a 
marriage  with  the  uncle  of  the  reigning  sovereign. 
Nor  was  she,  perhaps,  judging  by  what  followed, 
indifferent  to  the  personal  attractions  of  this,  her 
first  suitor.  Though  a  certain  impression  of 
vulgarity  is  conveyed,  in  spite  of  his  magnificent 
voice  and  splendid  appearance,  by  the  Lord  Admiral, 
a  child  twenty  years  younger  than  himself  was  not 
likely  to  detect,  in  the  recognised  Adonis  of  the 
Court,  the  presence  of  this  somewhat  indefinable 
attribute.  In  her  eyes  he  was  doubtless  a  dazzling 
figure  ;  and  though  she  replied  by  a  polite  refusal  to 
entertain  his  addresses,  it  is  said  that  she  afterwards 
owed  her  step-mother  a  grudge  for  having  discouraged 


Seymour  and  Katherine  Parr  71 

her  from  accepting  them.  Her  answer  was,  how- 
ever, a  model  of  maidenly  modesty.  She  had,  she 
stated,  neither  age  nor  inclination  to  think  of 
marriage,  and  would  never  have  believed  that  the 
subject  would  have  been  broached  so  soon  after  her 
father's  death.  Two  years  at  least  must  be  passed 
in  mourning,  nor  could  she  decide  to  become  a  wife 
before  she  had  reached  years  of  discretion.1 

That  problematical  date  would  not  be  patiently 
awaited  by  a  man  intent  upon  building  up  without 
delay  the  fabric  of  his  fortunes  ;  and,  denied 
the  late  King's  daughter,  Seymour  promptly  fell 
back  upon  his  wife.  A  graphic  account  of  the 
beginning  of  his  courtship  is  supplied  by  the  Spanish 
chronicle,  and,  if  not  reliable  for  accuracy,  the 
narrative  no  doubt  represents  what  was  believed  in 
London,  where  the  writer  was  resident.  The 
question  of  the  marriage  had  been,  according  to 
him,-first  mooted  to  the  Council  by  the  Protector, 
and  though  other  authorities  assert  that  the  Duke 
was  opposed  to  the  match,  both  facts  may  be  true. 
It  is  not  inconceivable  that,  whilst  he  would  have 
preferred  that  his  brother  should  have  looked  less 
high  for  a  wife,  the  possibility  that  Seymour  might 
have  obtained  the  hand  of  the  King's  sister  may 
have  caused  the  Protector  to  regard  with  favour  an 
arrangement  putting  a  marriage  with  the  Princess 
out  of  the  question. 

1  Leti,  Vie  de  la  Reine  Elizabeth,  p.  163. 


72  Lady  Jane  Grey 

At  the  Council  Board  it  is  said  that  the  proposal 
received  the  approbation  of  the  Chancellor.  Cranmer, 
though  characterising  it  as  an  act  of  disrespect  to  the 
memory  of  the  late  King,  promised  to  interpose  no 
obstacle.  Paget,  the  Secretary,  went  further,  engag- 
ing that  his  wife,  in  attendance  on  the  Queen,  should 
push  the  matter  to  the  best  of  her  ability. 

After  dinner  one  day,  accordingly — to  continue 
the  narrative  of  the  Spaniard — when  the  Queen,  with 
all  her  ladies,  was  in  the  great  hall  of  the  palace,  and 
the  Lord  Admiral  entered,  "  looking  so  handsome 
that  every  one  had  something  to  say  about  him," 
Lady  Paget,  taking  her  opportunity,  made  a  whis- 
pered inquiry  to  the  Queen  as  to  her  opinion 
of  Seymour's  appearance.  To  which  the  Queen 
answered  that  she  liked  it  very  much — "  oh,  how 
changeable,"  sighs  the  chronicler,  "  are  women  in  that 
country  !  "  Encouraged  by  Katherine's  reply,  Lady 
Paget  ventured  to  go  further,  and  to  hint  at  a 
marriage  ;  answering,  when  the  Queen  replied  by 
demurring  on  the  score  of  her  superior  rank  as 
Queen-Dowager,  that  to  win  so  pretty  a  man  you 
might  well  stoop.  Katherine  would,  she  added, 
continue  to  retain  her  royal  title.1 

The  Queen  did  not  prove  difficult  to  persuade. 

If  it  is  true  that  she  had  been  cognisant  of  Seymour's 

attempt  to  obtain  the  hand  of  her  step-daughter,  the 

fact  might  have  warned  her  of  the  nature  of  the  love 

1  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIII.,  p.  158. 


Marriage  of  Seymour  and  Katherine     73 

he  was  offering  to  herself.  But  a  woman  in  her 
state  of  mind  is  not  accessible  to  reason.  A  little 
more  than  a  month  after  Henry's  death  the  betrothal 
took  place,  the  marriage  following  upon  it  in  May, 
and  the  haste  displayed  giving  singular  proof  of  how 
far  the  Queen's  old  passion  had  mastered  prudence 
and  discretion.  The  world  was  scandalised,  and  the 
King's  daughters  in  particular  were  strong  in  their 
disapproval ;  Mary,  the  more  energetic  of  the  two 
on  this  occasion,  summoning  her  sister  to  visit  her, 
that  together  they  might  devise  means  of  prevent- 
ing the  impending  insult  to  their  father's  memory, 
or  concert  a  method  of  making  their  attitude 
clear. 

Elizabeth,  though  her  objections  to  the  match 
were  probably,  on  personal  grounds,  stronger  than 
those  of  her  sister,  was  more  cautious  than  Mary. 
The  girl,  or  her  advisers,  may  have  been  aware  of 
the  fact  that  opposition  to  the  King's  uncle  would 
be  a  dangerous  course  to  be  pursued  by  any  one 
whose  future  was  as  ill  assured  as  her  own  ;  and, 
in  answer  to  her  sister,  she  pointed  out,  though 
expressing  her  grief  at  the  affair,  that  their  sole  con- 
solation would  lie  in  submission  to  the  will  of 
Providence,  since  neither  was  able  to  offer  practical 
resistance  to  the  project.  Dissimulation,  under  these 
circumstances,  would  be  their  best  policy.  Mary 
might  decline  to  visit  the  Queen,  but  in  Elizabeth's 
subordinate  position  she  would  herself  be  compelled 


74  Lady  Jane  Grey 

to  do  so,  her  step-mother  having  shown  her  so 
much  kindness.1 

Despite  public  censure,  despite  the  blame  and 
disapproval  of  critics  whose  disapproval  would  carry 
more  weight,  Katherine  may  not  at  this  time  have 
regretted  her  defiance  of  conventional  propriety  ; 
and  those  spring  weeks,  passed  at  her  jointure  palace 
in  Chelsea,  were  probably  the  happiest  of  her 
life.  The  nightmare  sense  of  insecurity,  which  can 
never  have  been  wholly  laid  to  rest  so  long  as  Henry 
lived,  was  removed  ;  the  price  exacted  for  her  royal 
dignity  had  been  paid,  to  the  uttermost  farthing  ; 
and  she  was  a  free  woman.  Her  old  love  for 
Seymour  had  re-awakened  in  full  force,  and  she 
believed  it  was  returned.  Pious  and  prudent, 
Katherine  had  forgotten  to  be  wise.  Disillusionment 
might  come  later,  but  at  present  the  future  smiled 
upon  her  ;  and  she  may  fairly  have  counted  upon 
it  to  pay,  at  long  last,  the  debts  of  the  past. 

Her  letters,  light  and  tender,  grave  and  gay, 
indicate  her  mood  as  she  awaited  the  day  when  she 
would  take  her  place  before  the  world  as  Seymour's 
wife.  Whether  a  marriage  had  already  taken  place, 
though  kept  private  as  a  concession  to  public  opinion, 
or  whether  it  was  still  to  come,  there  were  secret 
meetings  in  the  early  spring  mornings  by  the  river, 
when  the  town  was  scarcely  awake,  the  more  welcome, 
it  may  be,  because  of  the  sense  that  they  were  stolen 

1  Leti,  Vie  dt  la  Reine  Elizabeth,  p.  170. 


Marriage  of  Seymour  and  Katherine     75 

"  When  it  shall  be  your  pleasure  to  repair  hither," 
wrote  Kateryn  the  Quene — her  invariable  signature 
— to  her  lover,  "  ye  must  take  some  pains  to  come 
early  in  the  morning,  that  ye  may  be  gone  again 
by  seven  o'clock  ;  and  so  I  suppose  ye  may  come 
hither  without  suspect.  I  pray  you  let  me  have 
knowledge  over-night  at  what  hour  ye  will  come, 
that  your  portress  [herself]  may  wait  at  the  gate  of 
the  fields  for  you.  ...  By  her  that  is,  and  shall 
be,  your  humble,  true,  and  loving  wife  during  her 
life." 

Poor,  learned  Katherine  had  fallen  an  unresisting 
victim,  like  any  other  common  woman,  to  the  gifts 
and  attractions  of  the  man  who  was  to  prove  so 
unsatisfactory  a  husband  1 

By  May  17,  if  not  before,  it  is  clear  that  the 
marriage  had  taken  place,  though  the  secret  had 
been  so  closely  kept  that  it  was  a  surprise  to  the 
bridegroom  to  discover  that  it  was  known  to  the 
Queen's  own  sister,  Lady  Herbert.  On  visiting 
the  latter,  he  told  Katherine  in  a  letter  of  this  date, 
she  had  charged  him  "  touching  my  lodging  with 
your  Highness  at  Chelsea,"  the  Admiral  stoutly 
maintaining  that  he  had  done  no  more  than  pass  by 
the  garden  on  his  way  to  the  house  of  the  Bishop 
of  London  ;  "  till  at  last  she  told  me  further  tokens, 
which  made  me  change  colour,"  and  he  had  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that  Lady  Herbert  had  been  taken 
into  her  sister's  confidence. 


76  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Meantime  the  inconvenience  of  the  present  con- 
dition of  things  was  evident;  and  to  Mary — curiously 
enough,  since  her  disapproval  of  the  projected  mar- 
riage had  been  so  pronounced — Seymour  applied 
for  help  which  should  enable  him  to  put  an  end 
to  it.  Although  he  preserved  the  attitude  of  a 
mere  suitor  for  the  Queen's  hand,  it  may  be  that 
the  Princess  suspected  that  she  was  being  consulted 
after  the  event.  Her  answer  was  not  encouraging. 
Had  the  matter  concerned  her  nearest  kinsman  and 
dearest  friend  it  would,  she  told  the  Admiral,  stand 
least  with  her  poor  honour  than  with  any  other 
creature  to  meddle  in  the  affair,  considering  whose 
wife  the  Queen  had  lately  been. 

"  If  the  remembrance  of  the  King's  Majesty  my 
father  .  .  .  will  not  suffer  her  to  grant  your  suit, 
I  am  nothing  able  to  persuade  her  to  forget  the 
loss  of  him  who  is,  as  yet,  very  rife  in  mine  own 
remembrance."  If,  however,  the  Princess  refused 
the  assistance  he  begged,  she  assured  him  that, 
"  wooing  matters  apart,  wherein,  being  a  maid,  I 
am  nothing  cunning,"  she  would  be  ready  in  other 
things  to  serve  him. 

The  young  King,  to  whom  recourse  was  next 
had,  was  found  more  accommodating  ;  and  indeed 
appears  to  have  been  skilfully  convinced  that  it 
was  by  his  persuasions  that  his  stepmother  had 
been  induced  to  bestow  her  hand  upon  his  uncle, 
writing  to  thank  the  Queen  for  her  gentle  accep- 


The  King  and  the  Marriage  77 

tation  of  his  suit.  The  boy,  after  Katherine's  death 
and  her  husband's  disgrace,  gave  an  account  of  the 
methods  used  to  obtain  his  intervention  : 

"  The  Lord  Admiral  came  to  me  .  .  .  and  desired 
me  to  write  a  thing  for  him.  I  asked  him  what. 
He  said  it  was  none  ill  thing  ;  it  is  for  the  Queen's 
Majesty.  I  said  if  it  were  good  the  Lords  would 
allow  it ;  if  it  were  ill  I  would  not  write  on  it. 
Then  he  said  they  would  take  it  in  better  part  if 
I  would  write.  I  desired  him  to  let  me  alone  in 
that  matter.  Cheke  said  afterwards  to  me,  'Ye 
were  best  not  to  write.' " l 

The  boy's  letter  to  the  Queen  proves  that  he  had 
subsequently  yielded  to  his  uncle's  request  ;  and  in 
June  the  fact  of  the  marriage  became  public  property. 

The  progress  of  the  love-affair  will  have  been 
watched  with  interest  by  the  curious  and  jealous 
eyes  of  Elizabeth,  the  half-grown  girl,  who,  placed 
by  the  Council  under  her  step-mother's  care  at 
Chelsea,  had  ample  opportunities  of  forming  her 
conclusions.  Lady  Jane  Grey  may,  not  improbably, 
have  been  likewise  a  spectator  of  what  was  going 
forward.  There  is  no  evidence  to  show  whether  it 
was  before  or  after  the  public  avowal  of  the  marriage 
that  she  took  up  her  residence  under  the  Queen's 
roof.  But,  having  obtained  his  point  and  gained 
her  custody,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  imagine  that 
the  Admiral  may  have  found  a  child  of  ten  an  en- 
1  Haynes,  State  Papers. 


78  Lady  Jane  Grey 

cumbrance  in  his  household,  and  have  taken  the 
earliest  opportunity  of  consigning  her  to  Katherine's 
care. 

A  passive  asset  as  she  was  in  the  political  reckon- 
ing, the  debates  concerning  her  guardianship  must 
have  done  something  to  bring  home  to  her  mind 
the  consciousness  of  her  importance ;  and  she 
had  doubtless  been  made  well  aware  of  her  title 
to  consideration  by  the  time  that  she  became  an 
honoured  inmate  of  the  Lord  Admiral's  house. 
But  concerning  the  details  of  her  existence  at  this 
date  history  is  dumb,  and  we  can  but  guess  at 
her  attitude  as,  fresh  from  her  country  home,  she 
watched,  under  the  roof  of  her  new  guardian  in 
Seymour  Place,  the  life  of  the  great  city  around; 
or  within  the  more  tranquil  precincts  of  Chelsea 
Palace,  with  the  broad  river  flowing  past,  shared 
in  the  studies  and  pursuits  of  her  cousin  Elizabeth, 
ready-witted,  full  of  vitality,  and  already  displaying 
some  of  the  traits  marking  the  Queen  of  future 
years. 

Did  the  shadow  of  predestined  and  early  death 
single  little  Jane  out  from  her  companions  ?  Like 
the  comrades  of  whom  Maeterlinck  tells,  "  children 
of  precocious  death,"  possessing  no  friends  amongst 
the  playmates  who  were  not  about  to  die,  did  she 
stand  in  some  sort  apart  and  separate,  regarding 
those  around  her  with  a  grave  smile  ?  We  build 
up  the  unrecorded  days  of  childhood  from  the 


Lady  Jane's  Childhood 


79 


few  short  years  that  followed  ;  and  reading  back- 
wards, and  fitting  the  fragments  of  a  life  into  its 
place,  we  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  Jane 
Grey's  laughter  rang  like  that  of  other  undoomed 
children  through  the  pleasant  Chelsea  gardens, 
that  she  shared  with  a  whole  heart  in  the  games 
of  her  playfellows,  or  that  the  strange  serious- 
ness of  her  youth  did  not  envelope  the  small, 
sedate  figure  of  the  child. 


CHAPTER  VII 

1547—1548 

Katherine  Parr's  unhappy  married  life — Dissensions  between  the 
Seymour  brothers — The  King  and  his  uncles — The  Admiral 
and  Princess  Elizabeth — Birth  of  Katherine's  child,  and  her 
death. 

THE  belated  idyll  of  love  and  happiness  enjoyed 
by  "  Kateryn  the  Quene  "  was  of  pitifully  short 
duration.  During  the  first  days  of  September  1548, 
some  fifteen  months  after  the  stolen  marriage  at 
Chelsea,  a  funeral  procession  left  Sudeley  Castle, 
and  the  body  of  the  wife  of  the  Lord  Admiral 
was  carried  forth  to  burial,  Lady  Jane  Grey,  his 
ward,  then  in  her  twelfth  year,  acting  as  chief 


mourner.1 


Jane  had  good  cause  to  mourn,  in  other  than 
an  official  capacity.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that,  had 
Katherine  Parr  been  living,  the  child  she  had  cared 
for  and  who  had  made  her  home  under  her  roof, 
would  not  have  been  saved  from  the  doom  destined 
to  overtake  her  not  six  years  later. 

Katherine's  dream  had  died  before  she  did,  and 
the  period  of  her  marriage,  short  though  it  was, 

1  An  Historical  Account  of  Sudeley  Castle. 
80 


Kathcrine  Parr's  Troubles  81 

must  have  been  a  time  of  rapid  disillusionment. 
It  could  scarcely,  taking  the  circumstances  into 
account,  have  been  otherwise.  Seymour  was  not 
the  man  to  make  the  happiness  of  a  wife  touching 
upon  middle  age,  studious,  learned,  and  devout, 
"  avoiding  all  occasions  of  idleness,  and  contemning 
vain  pastimes." l  His  love,  if  indeed  it  had  been  ever 
other  than  disguised  ambition,  was  short-lived,  and 
Katherine's  awakening  must  have  come  all  too  swiftly. 

Nor  was  the  revelation  of  her  husband's  true 
character  her  only  cause  of  trouble.  Minor  vexa- 
tions had,  from  the  first,  attended  her  new  condition 
of  life,  and  she  had  been  made  to  feel  that  the  wife 
of  the  Protector's  younger  brother  could  not  expect 
to  enjoy  the  deference  due  to  a  Dowager-Queen. 
To  Katherine,  who  clung  to  her  former  dignity,  the 
loss  of  it  was  no  light  matter,  and  her  sister-in-law, 
the  Duchess  of  Somerset,  and  she  were  at  open  war. 

Contemporary  and  early  writers  are  agreed  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  woman  with  whom  she  had 
to  deal.  "  The  Protector,"  explains  the  Spanish 
chronicler,  giving  the  popular  version  of  the  affair, 
"  had  a  wife  who  was  prouder  than  he  was,  and  she 
ruled  the  Protector  so  completely  that  he  did  what- 
ever she  wished,  and  she,  finding  herself  in  such 
great  state,  became  more  presumptuous  than 
Lucifer." 2  Hayward  attributes  the  subsequent 
disunion  between  the  brothers,  in  the  first  place, 

1  Quoted  by  Strype.        »  Chronicle  of  Henry  VIIL,  p.  156. 

6 


82  Lady  Jane  Grey 

to  "  the  unquiet  vanity  of  a  mannish,  or  rather  a 
devilish  woman  .  .  .  for  many  imperfections 
intolerable,  but  for  pride  monstrous " ; l  whilst 
Heylyn  represents  the  Duchess  as  observing  that,  if 
Mr.  Admiral  should  teach  his  wife  no  better  manners, 
"  I  am  she  that  will."  2 

The  struggle  for  precedence  carried  on  between 
the  wives   could  scarcely  fail   to  have  a  bad  effect 
upon   the  relationship  of  the  husbands,   already  at 
issue     upon     graver     questions ;     and     Warwick, 
Somerset's   future   rival,    was    at    hand   to    foment 
the   strife   between    Protector    and    Admiral,    and, 
"  secretly   playing   with    both    hands,"    paved    the 
way   for   the   fall  of   the  younger  brother  and  the 
consequent  weakening  of  the    forces   which  barred 
the  way  to  the  attainment  of  his  personal  ambitions. 
Nor   can   there  be  any  doubt  that,    apart   from 
the  ill  offices  of  those  who  desired  to  separate  the 
interests  of  the  brothers,   the   Protector   had   good 
reason  to  stand  upon  his  guard.     When    Seymour 
was  tried  for  his  life  during  the  winter  of  1548-9, 
dependants  and  equals    alike  came  forward    to  bear 
witness  to  his  intriguing  propensities,  their  evidence 
going  far  to  prove  that,  whatever  may  be  thought 
of  Somerset's  conduct  as  a  brother  in  sending  him  to 
the  scaffold,  as  head  of  the  State  and  responsible  for 
the  government  of  the  realm,  he  was  not  without 

1  Hayward,  Life  of  Edward  VI.>  p.  82, 
1  Heylyn's  Reformation,  p.  71. 


From  a  photo  by  W.  Mansell  &  Co.  after  an  engraving. 

KATHERINE   PARR. 


The  Seymour  Brothers  83 

justification.  It  is  clear  that  from  the  first  the 
Admiral,  jealous  of  the  position  accorded  to  the 
Duke  by  the  Council,  had  been  sedulously  engaged 
in  attempting  to  undermine  his  power,  and  had 
not  disguised  his  resentment  at  his  appropriation 
of  undivided  authority.  Never  had  it  been  seen 
in  a  minority — so  he  informed  a  confidant l — that 
the  one  brother  should  bear  all  rule,  the  other 
none.  One  being  Protector,  the  other  should 
have  filled  the  post  of  Governor  to  the  King,  so 
he  averred  ;  although,  on  another  occasion,  con- 
tradicting himself,  he  declared  he  would  wish  the 
earth  to  open  and  swallow  him  rather  than  accept 
either  post.  There  was  abundant  proof  that  he 
had  done  his  utmost,  whenever  opportunity  was 
afforded  him,  to  rouse  the  King  to  discontent. 
It  was  a  disagreeable  feature  of  the  day  that  men 
were  in  no  wise  slack  in  accusing  their  friends  in 
times  of  disgrace,  thereby  seeking  to  safeguard  their 
reputations ;  and  Dorset  came  forward  later  to 
testify  that  Seymour  had  told  him  that  his  nephew 
had  divers  times  made  his  moan,  saying  that  "  My 
uncle  of  Somerset  dealeth  very  hardly  with  me,  and 
keepeth  me  so  straight  that  I  cannot  have  money  at 
my  will."  The  Lord  Admiral,  added  the  boy,  both 
sent  him  money  and  gave  it  to  him.2 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  testimony    brought 
against   the    Admiral   was    that   of  the  little  King 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers.  '  Ibid. 


84  Lady  Jane  Grey 

himself,  who  asserted  that  Seymour  had  charged 
him  with  being  "  bashful  "  in  his  own  affairs,  asking 
why  he  did  not  speak  to  bear  rule  as  did  other  Kings. 
"  I  said  I  needed  not,  for  I  was  well  enough,"  the 
boy  replied  on  this  occasion.  At  another  time, 
according  to  his  confession,  a  conversation  took 
place  the  more  grim  from  the  simplicity  of  the 
language  in  which  it  is  recorded. 

"  Within  these  two  years  at  least,"  said  Edward, 
now  eleven  years  old,  "  he  said,  *  Ye  must  take  upon 
yourself  to  rule,  and  then  ye  may  give  your  men 
somewhat  ;  for  your  uncle  is  old,  and  I  trust  he  will 
not  live  long.'  I  answered  it  were  better  that  he 
should  die."  l 

It  was  scarcely  possible  that  the  Protector  should 
not  have  been  cognisant  of  a  part  at  least  of  his 
brother's  machinations  ;  and  he  naturally,  so  far  as 
was  possible,  kept  his  charge  from  falling  further 
under  the  influence  of  his  enemies.  The  young 
King's  affection  for  his  step-mother  had  been  a 
cause  of  disquiet  to  her  brother-in-law  and  his 
wife,  care  being  taken  to  separate  him  from  her 
as  much  as  was  possible.  So  long  as  Katherine 
remained  in  London  it  had  been  Edward's  habit  to 
visit  her  apartments  unattended,  and  by  a  private 
entrance.  Familiar  intercourse  of  this  kind  termin- 
ated when  she  removed  to  a  distance  ;  and,  so 
far  as  the  Lord  Protector  could  ensure  obedience, 
1  Haynes,  State  Papers. 


Edward  and  his  Uncles  85 

little  communication  was  permitted  between  the 
two  during  the  short  time  the  Queen  had  to  live. 
The  boy,  however,  was  constant  to  old  affection,  and 
used  what  opportunities  he  could  to  express  it. 

"If  his  Grace  could  get  any  spare  time,"  wrote 
one  John  Fowler,  a  servant  of  the  royal  house- 
hold, to  the  Admiral,  "  his  Grace  would  write 
a  letter  to  the  Queen's  Grace,  and  to  you.  His 
Highness  desires  your  lordship  to  pardon  him,  for 
his  Grace  is  not  half  a  quarter  of  an  hour  alone. 
But  in  such  leisure  as  his  Grace  has,  his  Majesty 
hath  written  (here  enclosed)  his  commendations  to 
the  Queen's  Grace  and  to  your  lordship,  that  he  is 
so  much  bound  to  you  that  he  must  remember  you 
always,  and,  as  his  Grace  may  have  time,  you  shall 
well  perceive  by  such  small  lines  of  recommendations 
with  his  own  hand."  l 

The  scribbled  notes,  on  scraps  of  paper,  written 
by  stealth  and  as  he  could  find  opportunity,  by  the 
King,  testify  to  the  closeness  of  the  watch  kept 
upon  him  ;  their  contents  show  the  means  by  which 
the  Admiral  strove  to  maintain  his  hold  upon  his 
nephew. 

"  My  lord,"  so  runs  the  first,  "  send  me,  per 
Latimer,  as  much  as  ye  think  good,  and  deliver  it 
to  Fowler."  The  second  note  is  one  of  thanks. 

An  attempt  was  made  by  the  Admiral  to  obtain 

1  State  Papers.  Quoted  in  Strickland's  Queens  of  England, 
vol.  iii.,  p.  272 


86  Lady  Jane  Grey 

a  letter  from  the  King  which,  complaining  of  the 
Protector's  system  of  restraint,  should  be  laid  before 
Parliament  ;  but  the  intrigue  was  discovered,  the 
Admiral  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Council, 
and,  though  he  was  at  first  inclined  to  bluster,  and 
replied  by  a  defiance,  a  hint  of  imprisonment  brought 
him  to  reason,  and  some  sort  of  hollow  reconciliation 
between  the  brothers  followed. 

The  King,  the  unfortunate  subject  of  dispute,  was 
probably  lonely  enough.  For  his  tutor,  Sir  John 
Cheke,  and  for  his  school-mate,  Barnaby  Fitzpatrick, 
he  appears  to  have  entertained  a  real  affection  ;  but 
for  his  elder  uncle  and  guardian  he  had  little  liking, 
nor  was  the  Duchess  of  Somerset  a  woman  to  win 
the  heart  of  her  husband's  ward.  From  his  step- 
mother and  the  Admiral  he  was  practically  cut  off ; 
and  his  sisters,  for  whom  his  attachment  was  genuine, 
were  at  a  distance,  and  paid  only  occasional  visits  to 
Court.  Mary's  influence,  as  a  Catholic,  would 
naturally  have  been  feared  ;  and  Elizabeth,  living 
for  the  time  under  the  Admiral's  roof,  would  be 
regarded  likewise  with  suspicion.  But  the  happiness 
of  the  nominal  head  of  the  State  was  not  a 
principal  consideration  with  those  around  him,  mostly 
engaged  in  a  struggle  not  only  to  secure  present 
personal  advantages,  but  to  ensure  their  continuance 
at  such  time  as  Edward  should  have  attained  his 
majority. 

The  relations  between  the  Seymour  brothers  being 


Marriage  Projects  87 

that  of  a  scarcely  disguised  hostility,  the  Admiral  had 
the  more  reason  to  congratulate  himself  upon  having 
obtained  the  possession  and  disposal  of  the  person 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey — third,  save  for  her  mother, 
in  the  line  of  succession  to  the  throne.  Should  her 
guardian  succeed  in  effecting  her  marriage  with  the 
King  the  arrangement  might  prove  of  vital  im- 
portance. On  the  other  hand,  Somerset's  matri- 
monial schemes  for  the  younger  members  of  the 
royal  house  were  of  an  altogether  different  nature. 
He  would  have  liked  to  marry  the  King  to  a  daughter 
of  his  own,  another  Lady  Jane,  and  to  have  obtained 
the  hand  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  for  his  son,  young 
Lord  Hertford. 

Such  projects,  however,  belonged  to  the  future. 
Nothing  could  be  done  for  the  present,  nor  does  it 
appear  that,  when  Somerset's  scheme  afterwards 
became  known  to  the  King,  it  met  with  any  favour 
in  his  eyes  ;  since,  noting  it  in  his  journal,  he  added 
his  private  intention  of  wedding  u  a  foreign  princess, 
well  stuffed  and  jewelled." 

So  far  as  Katherine  was  concerned,  her  domestic 
affairs  were  probably  causing  her  too  much  anxiety 
to  leave  attention  to  spare  for  those  of  King  or 
kingdom,  except  as  they  were  gratifying,  or  the 
reverse,  to  her  husband.  Since  the  May  day  when 
she  had  given  herself,  rashly  and  eagerly,  into 
the  keeping  of  the  Lord  Admiral,  she  had  been 
sorrowfully  enlightened  as  to  the  nature  of  the 


88  Lady  Jane  Grey 

man  and  of  his  affection  ;  and,  if  she  still  loved 
him,  her  heart  must  often  have  been  heavy.  The 
presence  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth  under  her  roof 
had  been  disastrous  in  its  consequences  ;  and, 
though  it  was  at  first  the  interest  of  all  to  keep 
the  matter  secret,  the  inquisition  made  at  the  time 
of  the  Admiral's  disgrace  into  the  circumstances 
of  his  married  life  affords  an  insight  into  his  wife's 
wrongs. 

In  a  conversation  held  between  Mrs.  Ashley, 
Elizabeth's  governess,  and  her  cofferer,  Parry,  after 
the  Queen's  death,  the  possibility  of  a  marriage 
between  the  widower  and  the  Princess  was  discussed, 
Parry  raising  objections  to  the  scheme,  on  the  score 
that  he  had  heard  evil  of  Seymour  as  being  covetous 
and  oppressive,  and  also  "  how  cruelly,  dishonourably, 
and  jealously  he  had  used  the  Queen." 

Ashley,  from  first  to  last  eager  to  forward  the 
Admiral's  interests,  brushed  the  protest  aside. 

"  Tush,  tush,"  she  replied,  "  that  is  no  matter. 
I  know  him  better  than  ye  do,  or  those  that  do  so 
report  him.  I  know  he  will  make  but  too  much  of 
her,  and  that  she  knows  well  enough."  l 

The  same  witness  confessed  at  this  later  date  that 
she  feared  the  Admiral  had  loved  the  Princess  too 
well,  and  the  Queen  had  been  jealous  of  both — 
an  avowal  corroborated  by  Elizabeth's  admissions, 
when  she  too  underwent  examination  concerning  the 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers. 


Elizabeth  and  the  Admiral  89 

relations  which  had  existed  between  herself  and  her 
step-mother's  husband. 

"  Kat  Ashley  told  me,"  she  deposed,  "  after  the 
Lord  Admiral  was  married  to  the  Queen,  that  if  my 
lord  might  have  had  his  own  will,  he  would  have 
had  me,  afore  the  Queen.  Then  I  asked  her  how 
she  knew  that.  Then  she  said  she  knew  it  well 
enough,  both  from  himself  and  from  others."  l 

If  the  correspondence  quoted  in  a  previous  page  is 
genuine,2  Elizabeth,  though  she  may  have  had  reason 
to  keep  her  knowledge  to  herself,  can  have  been  in 
no  doubt  as  to  the  Admiral's  sentiments  at  the  time 
of  her  father's  death.  With  a  governess  of  Mrs. 
Ashley's  type,  a  girl  of  fifteen  such  as  Elizabeth 
was  shown  to  be  by  her  subsequent  career,  and  a 
man  like  Seymour,  it  would  not  have  been  difficult 
to  prophesy  trouble.  That  the  Admiral  was  in 
love  with  his  wife's  charge  may  be  doubted  ;  in 
the  same  way  that  ambition,  rather  than  any  other 
sentiment,  may  be  credited  with  his  desire  to  obtain 
her  hand  a  few  months  earlier.  What  was  certain 
was  that  he  amused  himself,  after  his  boisterous 
fashion,  with  the  sharp-witted  girl  to  an  extent  cal- 
culated to  cause  both  uneasiness  and  anger  to  the 
Queen.  That  no  actual  harm  was  intended  may  be 
true — he  could  scarcely  have  been  blind  to  the  con- 
sequences had  he  dared  to  deal  otherwise  with  the 
daughter  and  sister  of  Kings  ;  and  the  whole  story, 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers.  *  Leti  is  responsible  for  it. 


90  Lady  Jane  Grey 

when  it  subsequently  came  to  light,  reads  like  an 
instance  of  coarse  and  vulgar  flirtation,  in  harmony 
with  the  nature  of  the  man  and  the  habits  of  the 
times.  What  is  less  easy  to  account  for  is  Katherine's 
partial  connivance,  in  its  earlier  stages,  at  the  rough 
horse-play,  if  nothing  worse,  carried  on  by  her 
husband  and  her  step-daughter.  A  scene,  for 
example,  is  described  as  taking  place  at  Hanworth, 
where  the  Admiral,  in  the  garden  with  his  wife  and 
the  Princess,  cut  the  girl's  gown,  "  being  black  cloth," 
into  a  hundred  pieces  ;  Elizabeth  replying  to  Mrs. 
Ashley's  protests  by  saying  that  "  she  could  not 
strive  with  all,  for  the  Queen  held  her  while  the 
Lord  Admiral  cut  the  dress."  Nor  was  this  the 
only  occasion  upon  which  Katherine  appears  to  have 
looked  on  without  disapproval  whilst  her  husband 
treated  her  charge  in  a  fashion  befitting  her  character 
neither  as  Princess  nor  guest. 

The  explanation  may  lie  in  the  fact  that  the  un- 
fortunate Queen  was  attempting  to  adapt  her  taste 
and  her  manners  to  those  of  the  man  she  had  married. 
But  the  condition  of  the  household  could  not  last. 
A  crisis  was  reached  when  one  day  Katherine,  coming 
unexpectedly  upon  the  two,  found  Seymour  with  the 
Princess  in  his  arms,  and  decided,  none  too  soon, 
that  an  end  must  be  put  to  the  situation.  It  was 
not  long  after  that  the  households  of  Queen  and 
Princess  were  parted,  "  and  as  I  remember,"  explained 
Parry  the  cofferer,  "  this  was  the  cause  why  she  was 


Elizabeth  and  the  Admiral  91 

sent  from  the  Queen,  or  else  that  her  Grace  parted 
from  the  Queen.  I  do  not  perfectly  remember 
whether  of  both  she  [Ashley]  said  she  went  of  her- 
self or  was  sent  away."  1 

There  can  be  little  doubt,  one  would  imagine,  that 
it  was  Katherine  who  determined  to  disembarrass 
herself  of  her  visitor.  A  letter  from  Elizabeth,  evi- 
dently written  after  their  separation,  appears  to  show 
that  farewell  had  been  taken  in  outwardly  friendly 
fashion,  although  the  promise  she  quotes  Katherine 
as  making  has  an  ambiguous  sound  about  it.  The 
Princess  wrote  to  say  that  she  had  been  replete  in 
sorrow  at  leaving  the  Queen,  "  and  albeit  I  answered 
little,  I  weighed  it  more  deeply  when  you  said  you 
would  warn  me  of  all  evils  that  you  should  hear  of 
me  ;  for  if  your  Grace  had  not  a  good  opinion  of 
me,  you  would  not  have  offered  friendship  to  me 
that  way,  that  all  men  judge  the  contrary."  2 

It  is  not  difficult  to  detect  the  sore  feeling  under- 
lying Elizabeth's  acknowledgments  of  a  promise  of 
open  criticism.  Katherine  must  have  breathed  more 
freely  when  the  Princess  and  her  governess  had 
quitted  the  house. 

Meantime,  in  spite  of  disappointment  and  anger 
and  care,  the  winter  was  to  bring  the  Queen  one 
genuine  cause  of  rejoicing.  Thrice  married  without 
children,  she  was  hoping  to  give  Seymour  an  heir, 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  96. 

3  Tytler,  Edward  and  Mary,  vol.  i.,  p.  70. 


92  Lady  Jane  Grey 

and  the  prospect  was  hailed  with  delight  by  husband 
and  wife  alike.  In  her  gladness,  and  the  chief  cause 
of  dissension  removed,  her  just  grounds  of  complaint 
were  forgotten  ;  her  letters  continued  to  be  couched 
in  terms  as  loving  as  if  no  domestic  friction  had 
interrupted  her  wedded  happiness,  and  she  ranged 
herself  upon  Seymour's  side  in  his  recurrent  dis- 
putes with  his  brother  with  a  passionate  vehemence 
out  of  keeping  with  her  character. 

"This  shall  be  to  advertise  you,"  she  wrote  some 
time  in  1548,  "that  my  lord  your  brother  hath 
this  afternoon  made  me  a  little  warm.  It  was 
fortunate  we  were  so  much  distant,  for  I  suppose 
else  I  should  have  bitten  him.  What  cause  have 
they  to  fear  having  such  a  wife  !  It  is  requisite  for 
them  continually  to  pray  for  a  dispatch  of  that  hell. 
To-morrow,  or  else  upon  Saturday  ...  I  will  see 
the  King,  where  I  intend  to  utter  all  my  choler  to 
my  lord  your  brother,  if  you  shall  not  give  me 
advice  to  the  contrary."  l 

Another  letter,  also  indicating  the  strained  relations 
existing  between  the  brothers,  is  again  full  of  affection 
for  the  man  who  deserved  it  so  ill. 

"  I  gave  your  little  knave  your  blessing,"  she  tells 
the  Admiral,  alluding  to  the  unborn  child  neither 
parent  was  to  see  grow  up,  "...  bidding  my 
sweetheart  and  loving  husband  better  to  fare  than 
myself."  2 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  61.  *  Ibid. 


Sudeley  Castle  93 

A  few  months  more,  and  hope  and  fear  and  love 
and  disappointment  were  alike  to  find  an  end. 
Sudeley  Castle,  where  the  final  scene  took  place, 
was  a  property  granted  to  the  Admiral  on  the  death 
of  the  late  King,  from  which  he  took  his  title  as  Lord 
Seymour  of  Sudeley.  It  was  a  question  whether 
those  responsible  for  the  government  had  the  right 
of  alienating  possessions  of  the  Crown  during  the 
minority  of  a  sovereign,  and  the  tenure  upon  which 
the  place  was  held  was  therefore  insecure,  Katherine 
asserting  on  one  occasion  that  it  was  her  husband's 
intention  to  restore  it  to  his  nephew  when  he  should 
come  of  age.  In  awaiting  that  event  Seymour  and 
his  wife  had  the  enjoyment  of  the  beauty  for  which 
the  old  building  had  long  been  noted. 

"  Ah,  Sudeley  Castle,  thou  art  the  traitor,  not 
I !  "  said  one  of  its  former  lords  as,  arrested  by  the 
orders  of  Henry  IV.  for  treason,  and  taken  away  to 
abide  his  trial,  he  cast  a  last  look  back  at  his  home — 
a  possession  worthy  of  being  coveted  by  a  King, 
and  by  the  attainder  of  its  owner  forfeited  to  the 
Crown. 

Here,  during  the  summer  of  1548 — the  last 
Katherine  was  to  see — a  motley  company  gathered 
round  the  Queen.  Jane  Grey,  "the  young  and 
early  wise,"  was  still  a  member  of  her  household, 
and  the  repudiated  wife  of  Katherine's  brother,  the 
Earl  of  Northampton — placed,  it  would  seem,  under 
some  species  of  restraint — was  in  the  keeping  of  her 


94  Lady  Jane  Grey 

sister-in-law.  Her  true  and  tried  friend,  Lady 
Tyrwhitt,  described  by  her  husband  as  half  a  Scripture 
woman,  kept  her  company,  as  she  had  done  in  her 
perilous  days  of  royal  state.  Learned  divines,  living 
with  her  in  the  capacity  of  chaplains,  were  inmates 
of  the  castle,  charged  with  the  duty  of  performing 
service  twice  each  day — exercises  little  to  the  taste 
of  the  master  of  the  house,  who  made  no  secret  of 
his  aversion  for  them. 

"  I  have  heard  say,"  affirmed  Larimer,  in  the 
course  of  one  of  the  sermons,  preached  after 
Seymour's  execution,  in  which  the  Bishop  took 
occasion  again  and  again  to  revile  the  dead  man, 
"  I  have  heard  say  that  when  the  good  Queen  that 
is  gone  had  ordained  daily  prayer  in  her  house, 
both  before  noon  and  after  noon,  the  Admiral 
getteth  him  out  of  the  way,  like  a  mole  digging  in 
the  earth.  He  shall  be  Lot's  wife  to  me  as  long  as 
I  live."  l 

To  Sudeley  also  had  repaired,   in  the  course  of 
the    summer,    Lord    Dorset,    possibly   desirous    of 
assuring   himself  that  all  was  well   with   his  little 
daughter.     He  may  have  had  other  objects  in  view. 
According    to   his    subsequent   confession,   Seymour 
had  discussed  with  him  the  methods  to  be  pursued 
in  order  to  gain  popularity  in  the  country,  making 
significant    inquiries    as    to    the    formation    of   the 
marquis's  household. 

1  Quoted  Remains  of  Edward  VI. 


Elizabeth  at  Sudeley  95 

Learning  that  Dorset  had  divers  gentlemen  who 
were  his  servants,  the  Admiral  admitted  that  it  was 
well.  "  Yet,"  he  added  shrewdly,  "  trust  not  too 
much  to  the  gentlemen,  for  they  have  something 
to  lose"  ;  proceeding  to  urge  his  ally  to  make  much 
of  the  chief  yeomen  and  men  of  their  class,  who 
were  able  to  persuade  the  multitude  ;  to  visit  them 
in  their  houses,  bringing  venison  and  wine  ;  to  use 
familiarity  with  them,  and  thus  to  gain  their  love. 
Such,  he  added,  was  his  own  intention.1 

Another  inmate  had  been  received  at  Sudeley 
not  more  than  a  few  weeks  before  Katherine's  con- 
finement. This  was  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  who 
appears,  by  a  letter  she  addressed  to  the  Queen  when 
the  visit  had  been  concluded,  to  have  been  at  this 
time  again  on  terms  of  friendship  and  affection 
with  her  step-mother,  since  writing  to  Katherine 
with  very  little  leisure  on  the  last  day  of  July,  she 
returned  humble  thanks  for  the  Queen's  wish  that 
she  should  have  remained  with  her  "  till  she  were 
weary  of  that  country."  Yet  in  spite  of  the 
hospitable  desire,  she  can  scarcely  have  been  a 
welcome  guest,  and  it  must  have  been  with  little 
regret  that  her  step-mother  saw  her  depart. 

Meantime,  the  birth  of  the  Queen's  child  was 
anxiously  expected.  Seymour  characteristically  de- 
sired a  son  who  "  should  God  give  him  life  to  live 
as  long  as  his  father,  will  avenge  his  wrongs  " — the 

1  Tytler,  Edward  and  Mary,  vol.  i. 


96  Lady  Jane  Grey 

problematical  wrongs  of  a  man  who  had  risen  to 
his  heights.  Elizabeth,  who  had  done  her  best  to 
wreck  the  Queen's  happiness  and  peace,  was  "  praying 
the  Almighty  God  to  send  her  a  most  lucky  de- 
liverance "  ;  and  Mary,  more  sincere  in  her  friend- 
ship, wrote  a  letter  full  of  affection  to  her  step-mother. 
The  preparations  made  by  Katherine  for  the  new- 
comer equalled  in  magnificence  those  that  might 
have  befitted  a  Prince  of  Wales  ;  and  though  the 
birth  of  a  girl,  on  August  30,  must  have  been  in 
some  degree  a  disappointment,  she  received  a 
welcome  scarcely  less  warm  than  might  have  been 
accorded  to  the  desired  son.  A  general  reconciliation 
appears  to  have  taken  place  on  the  occasion,  and 
the  Protector  responded  to  the  announcement  of 
the  event  in  terms  of  cordial  congratulation,  re- 
garding the  advent  of  so  pretty  a  daughter  in  the 
light  of  a  "  prophesy  and  good  hansell  to  a  great 
sort  of  happy  sons." 

Eight  days  after  the  rejoicings  at  the  birth  Katherine 
was  dead. 

Into  the  circumstances  attending  her  illness  and 
death  close  inquisition  was  made  at  a  time  when 
it  had  become  an  object  to  throw  discredit  upon  the 
Admiral,  and  foul  play — the  use  of  poison — was 
suggested.  The  charge  was  probably  without 
foundation  ;  the  facts  elicited  nevertheless  afford 
additional  proof  of  the  unsatisfactory  relations  ex- 
isting between  husband  and  wife,  and  throw  a 


Katherine's  Death  97 

melancholy  light  upon  the  closing  scene  of  the 
union  from  which  so  much  had  been  hoped. 

It  was  deposed  by  Lady  Tyrwhitt,  one  of  the 
principal  witnesses,  that,  upon  her  visiting  the 
chamber  of  the  sick  woman  one  morning,  two  days 
before  her  death,  Katherine  had  asked  where  she 
had  been  so  long,  adding  that  "  she  did  fear  such 
things  in  herself  that  she  was  sure  she  could  not 
live."  When  her  friend  attempted  to  soothe  her  by 
reassuring  words,  the  Queen  went  on  to  say — 
holding  her  husband's  hand  and  being,  as  Lady 
Tyrwhitt  thought,  partly  delirious — "  I  am  not  well 
handled  ;  for  those  that  be  about  me  care  not  for 
me,  but  stand  laughing  at  my  grief,  and  the  more 
good  I  will  to  them  the  less  good  they  will  to  me." 

The  words,  to  those  cognisant  of  the  condition 
of  the  household,  must  have  been  startling.  The 
Queen  may  have  been  wandering,  yet  her  complaint, 
as  such  complaints  do,  pointed  to  a  truth.  Others 
besides  Lady  Tyrwhitt  were  standing  by  ;  and 
Seymour  made  no  attempt  to  ignore  his  wife's 
meaning,  or  to  deny  that  the  charge  was  directed 
against  himself. 

"  Why,  sweet  heart,"  he  said,  "  I  would  do  you 
no  hurt." 

"  No,  my  lord,  I  think  not,"  answered 
Katherine  aloud,  adding,  in  his  ear,  <c  but,  my 
lord,  you  have  given  me  many  shrewd  taunts." 

"  These   words,"    said    Lady   Tyrwhitt    in    her 

7 


9&  Lady  Jane  Grey 

narrative,  "  I  perceived  she  spake  with  good  memory, 
and  very  sharply  and  earnestly,  for  her  mind  was 
sore  disquieted." 

After  consultation  it  was  decided  that  Seymour 
should  lie  down  by  her  side  and  seek  to  quiet  her 
by  gentle  words  ;  but  his  efforts  were  ineffectual,  the 
Queen  interrupting  him  by  saying,  roundly  and 
sharply,  "  that  she  would  have  given  a  thousand 
marks  to  have  had  her  full  talk  with  the  doctor  on 
the  day  of  her  delivery,  but  dared  not,  for  fear  of 
his  displeasure." 

"And  I,  hearing  that,"  said  the  lady-in-waiting, 
"  perceived  her  trouble  to  be  so  great,  that  my  heart 
would  serve  me  to  hear  no  more."  l 

Yet  on  that  same  day  the  dying  Queen  made 
her  will  and,  "  being  persuaded  and  perceiving  the 
extremity  of  death  to  approach  her,"  left  all  she 
possessed  to  her  husband,  wishing  it  a  thousand 
times  more  in  value  than  it  was.2 

Whether  pressure  was  used,  or  whether,  in  spite 
of  all,  her  old  love  awakened  and  stirred  her  to 
kindness  towards  the  man  she  was  leaving,  there 
is  nothing  to  show.  But  the  names  of  the  witnesses — 
Robert  Huyck,  the  physician  attending  her,  and 
John  Parkhurst,  her  chaplain,  afterwards  a  Bishop — 
would  seem  a  guarantee  that  the  document,  dictated 
but  not  signed — no  uncommon  case — was  genuine. 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  pp.  103,  104. 

*  Miss  Strickland,  Queens  of  England,  vol.  iii.,  p  281. 


Katherine's  Death  99 

For  the  rest,  Seymour  was  coarse  and  heartless,  a 
man  of  ambition,  and  intent  upon  the  furtherance 
of  his  fortunes.  It  is  not  unlikely  that,  when  his 
wife  lay  dying,  his  thoughts  may  have  turned  to 
the  girl  to  whom  he  had  in  his  own  way  already 
made  love  ;  who,  of  higher  rank  than  the  Queen, 
might  serve  his  interests  better,  and  whom  her 
death  would  leave  him  free  to  win  as  his  bride. 
And  Katherine,  with  the  memories  of  the  last  two 
years  to  aid  her  and  with  the  intuitions  born  of 
love  and  jealousy,  may  have  divined  his  thoughts. 
But  of  murder,  or  of  hastening  the  end  by  actual 
unkindness,  there  is  no  reason  to  suspect  him.  The 
affair  was  in  any  case  sufficiently  tragic,  and  one 
more  mournful  recollection  to  be  stored  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  had  loved  the  Queen. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
1548 

Lady  Jane's  temporary  return  to  her   father — He   surrenders  her 
again  to  the  Admiral — The  terms  of  the  bargain. 

ONE  of  the  secondary  but  immediate  effects  of 
the  Queen's  death  was  to  send  Lady  Jane 
Grey  back  to  her  parents.  It  was  indeed  to  Seymour, 
and  not  to  his  wife,  that  the  care  of  the  child  had 
been  entrusted  ;  but  in  his  first  confusion  of  mind 
after  what  he  termed  his  great  loss,  the  Admiral 
appears  to  have  recognised  the  difficulty  of  providing 
a  home  for  a  girl  in  her  twelfth  year  in  a  house 
without  a  mistress,  and  to  have  offered  to  relinquish 
her  to  her  natural  guardians. 

Having  acted  in  haste,  he  was  not  slow  to 
perceive  that  he  had  committed  a  blunder,  and 
quickly  reawakened  to  the  importance  of  retaining 
the  possession  and  disposal  of  the  child.  On  Sep- 
tember 17,  not  ten  days  after  Katherine's  death, 
he  was  writing  to  Lord  Dorset  to  cancel,  so  far  as  it 
was  possible,  his  hasty  suggestion  that  she  should 
return  to  her  father's  house,  and  begging  that  she 
might  be  permitted  to  remain  in  his  hands.  In  his 


Question  of  Lady  Jane's  Custody       101 

former  letter,  he  explained,  he  had  been  partly  so 
amazed  at  the  death  of  the  Queen  as  to  have  small 
regard  either  to  himself  or  his  doings,  partly  had 
believed  that  he  would  be  compelled,  in  consequence 
of  it,  to  break  up  his  household.     Under  these  cir- 
cumstances he    had   suggested    sending   Lady  Jane 
to  her  father,  as  to  him  who  would  be  most  tender 
of    her.       Having     had    time    to    reconsider    the 
question,  he  found  that  he  would  be  in  a  position  to 
maintain  his  establishment  much  on  its  old  footing. 
"  Therefore,  putting  my  whole  affiance  and  trust  in 
God,"   he  had  begun  to  arrange  his  household  as 
before,  retaining  the  services  not  only  of  the  gentle- 
women of  the  late  Queen's  privy  chamber,  but  also 
her  inferior  attendants.     "  And  doubting  lest  your 
lordship  should  think  any  unkindness  that  I  should 
by  my  said  letter  take  occasion  to  rid  me  of  your 
daughter  so  soon  after  the  Queen's  death,  for  the 
proof  both  of  my  hearty  affection  towards  you  and 
good-will  towards  her,  I  mind  now  to  keep  her  until 
I  shall  next  speak  to  your  lordship.  .  .  .  unless  I 
shall   be    advertised    from    your   lordship    of    your 
express  mind  to  the  contrary."     His  mother   will, 
he  has  no  doubt,  be  as  dear  to  Lady  Jane  as  though 
she   were    her    daughter,   and   for   his  part  he  will 
continue  her  half-father  and  more.1 

It  was  clear  that  the  Admiral  would  only  yield  the 
point  upon  compulsion.     Dorset,  however,  was  not 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  pp.  77,  78. 


102  Lady  Jane  Grey 

disposed  to  accede  to  his  wishes.  Developing  a 
sudden  parental  anxiety  concerning  the  child  he  had 
been  content  to  leave  to  the  care  of  others  for  more 
than  eighteen  months,  he  replied,  firmly  though 
courteously  negativing  the  Admiral's  request. 

"  Considering,"  he  said,  "  the  state  of  my  daughter 
and  her  tender  years  wherein  she  shall  hardly  rule 
herself  as  yet  without  a  guide,  lest  she  should,  for 
lack  of  a  bridle,  take  too  much  the  head  and  conceive 
such  opinion  of  herself  that  all  such  good  behaviour 
as  she  heretofore  have  learned  by  the  Queen's  and 
your  most  wholesome  instruction,  should  either 
altogether  be  quenched  in  her,  or  at  the  least  much 
diminished,  I  shall  in  most  hearty  wise  require  your 
lordship  to  commit  her  to  the  governance  of  her 
mother,  by  whom,  for  the  fear  and  duty  she  owes 
her,  she  shall  be  most  easily  ruled  and  framed  towards 
virtue,  which  I  wish  above  all  things  to  be  most 
plentiful  in  her."  Seymour  no  doubt  would  do  his 
best ;  but,  being  destitute  of  any  one  who  should 
correct  the  child  as  a  mistress  and  monish  her  as  a 
mother,  Dorset  was  sure  that  the  Admiral  would 
think,  with  him,  that  the  eye  and  oversight  of  his 
wife  was  necessary.  He  reiterated  his  former 
promise  to  dispose  of  her  only  according  to  Seymour's 
advice,  intending  to  use  his  consent  in  that  matter 
no  less  than  his  own.  "  Only  I  seek  in  these  her 
young  years,  wherein  she  now  standeth  either  to 
make  or  mar  (as  the  common  saying  is)  the  ad- 


Question  of  Lady  Jane's  Custody       103 

dressing   of  her   mind  to  humility,  soberness,  and 
obedience."  l 

It  was  the  letter  of  a  model  parent,  anxious 
concerning  the  welfare,  spiritual  and  mental,  of  a 
beloved  child,  and  Dorset,  as  he  sealed  and  despatched 
it,  will  have  felt  that  policy  and  conscience  were  for 
once  in  full  accord.  Lady  Dorset  likewise  wrote, 
endorsing  her  husband's  views. 

"  Whereas  of  a  friendly  and  brotherly  good  will 
you  wish  to  have  Jane,  my  daughter,  continuing  still 
in  your  house,  I  give  you  most  hearty  thanks  for 
your  gentle  offer,  trusting,  nevertheless,  that  for  the 
good  opinion  you  have  in  your  sister  [by  courtesy, 
meaning  herself]  you  will  be  content  to  charge  her 
with  her,  who  promiseth  you  not  only  to  be  ready 
at  all  times  to  account  for  the  ordering  of  your  dear 
niece,  but  also  to  use  your  counsel  and  advice  on  the 
bestowing  of  her,  whensoever  it  shall  happen.  Where- 
fore, my  good  brother,  my  request  shall  be,  that  I 
may  have  the  oversight  of  her  with  your  good  will, 
and  thereby  I  shall  have  good  occasion  to  think  that 
you  do  trust  me  in  such  wise  as  is  convenient  that  a 
sister  be  trusted  of  so  loving  a  brother." 

The  singular  humility  of  the  language  used  by 
a  king's  grand-daughter  in  demanding  restitution  of 
her  child  is  proof  of  the  position  held  by  the  Admiral 
in  the  eyes  of  those  as  well  fitted  to  judge  of  it 
as  Dorset  and  his  wife,  only  six  months  before 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  pp.  78,  79. 


104  Lady  Jane  Grey 

he  was  sent  to  the  scaffold.  It  was  none  the  less 
plain  that  they  were  determined  to  regain  possession 
of  their  daughter,  and,  though  not  abandoning  the 
hope  of  moving  her  parents  from  their  purpose, 
Seymour  yielded  provisionally  to  their  will  and  sent 
Lady  Jane  home.  A  letter  from  the  small  bone 
of  contention,  dated  October  i,  thanking  him  for 
his  great  goodness  and  stating  that  he  had  ever  been 
to  her  a  loving  and  kind  father,  proves  that  her 
removal  had  taken  place  by  that  time.  The  same 
courier  probably  conveyed  a  letter  from  her  mother, 
making  her  acknowledgments  for  Seymour's  kind- 
ness to  the  child,  and  his  desire  to  retain  her,  and 
adding  an  ambiguous  hope  that  at  their  next  meeting 
both  would  be  satisfied.1 

The  Admiral,  at  all  events,  intended  to  obtain 
satisfaction.  Where  his  interest  was  concerned 
he  was  an  obstinate  man.  Notwithstanding  his 
apparent  acquiescence,  he  meant  to  retain  the  custody 
of  Lord  Dorset's  daughter,  and  he  did  so.  Even 
his  household  understood  that  the  concession  made 
in  sending  her  home  was  but  temporary  ;  and,  in 
a  conversation  with  another  dependant,  Harrington — 
the  same  who  had  served  his  master  as  go-between 
before — observed  that  he  thought  the  maids  were 
continuing  with  the  Admiral  in  the  hope  of  Lady 
Jane's  return. 

A  visit  paid  by  Seymour  to  Dorset  decided  the 

1  Tytler,  Edward  VI.  and  Mary,  vol.  i.,  p.  134. 


Question  of  Lady  Jane's  Custody       105 

question.  "  In  the  end  " — it  is  the  latter  who 
speaks — "  after  long  debating  and  much  sticking 
of  our  sides,  we  did  agree  that  my  daughter  should 
return."  The  Admiral  had  come  to  his  house,  and 
had  been  so  earnest  in  his  persuasions  that  he  could 
not  resist  him.  The  old  bait  had  been  once  again 
held  out — Lady  Jane,  if  Seymour  could  compass  it, 
was  to  marry  the  King.  Her  mother  was  wrought 
upon  till  her  consent  was  gained  to  a  second 
parting ;  and  when  this  was  the  case,  observed 
the  marquis,  throwing,  according  to  precedent,  the 
responsibility  upon  his  wife,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  refuse  his  own.  He  added  a  pledge  that, 
"  except  the  King,"  he  would  spend  life  and  blood 
for  Seymour.  Thus  the  alliance  between  the  two 
was  renewed  and  cemented.  A  further  item  in  the 
transaction  throws  an  additional  and  unpleasant  light 
upon  the  means  taken  to  ensure  the  Lord  Marquis's 
surrender. 

The  Admiral  was  a  practical  man,  and  knew  with 
whom  he  had  to  deal.  He  had  not  confined  himself 
to  vague  pledges,  which  Dorset  knew  as  well  as  he 
did  that  he  might  never  be  in  a  position  to  fulfil. 
He  had  accompanied  his  promises  by  a  gift  of  hard 
cash.  "  Whether,  as  it  were,  for  an  earnest  penny 
of  the  favour  that  he  would  show  unto  him  when 
the  said  Lord  Marquis  had  sent  his  daughter  to  the 
said  Lord  Admiral,  he  sent  the  said  Lord  Marquis 
immediately  ^500,  parcell  of  ^2,000  which  he 


io6  Lady  Jane  Grey 

promised  to  lend  unto  him  and  would  have  asked 
no  bond  of  him  at  all  for  it,  but  only  to  leave  the 
Lord  Marquis's  daughter  for  a  gage."  l 

Five  hundred  golden  arguments,  and  more  to 
follow,  were  found  irresistible  by  the  needy  Dorset. 
The  pressing  necessity  that  Jane  should  be  under 
her  mother's  eye  disappeared  ;  the  bargain  was 
struck,  and  the  guardianship  of  the  child  bought 
and  sold. 

The  Admiral  was  triumphant.  It  was  not  only 
the  point  of  vantage  implied  by  the  possession  of 
the  little  ward  which  he  had  feared  to  forfeit,  but 
that  his  loss  might  be  the  gain  of  his  brother  and 
rival.  There  would  be  much  ado  for  my  Lady 
Jane,  he  told  his  brother-in-law,  Northampton,  and 
my  Lord  Protector  and  my  Lady  Somerset  would 
do  what  they  could  to  obtain  her  yet  for  my  Lord 
of  Hertford,  their  son.  They  should  not,  however, 
prevail  therein,  for  my  Lord  Marquis  had  given  her 
wholly  to  him,  upon  certain  covenants  between  them 
two.  "  And  then  I  asked  him,"  said  Northampton, 
describing  the  conversation,  "  what  he  would  do 
if  my  Lord  Protector,  handling  my  Lord  Marquis 
of  Dorset  gently,  should  obtain  his  good  will  and 
so  the  matter  to  lie  wholly  in  his  own  neck  ?  He 
answered  he  would  never  consent  thereto." 

Thus  Lady  Jane  was,   for  the    first  time,   made 
an  instrument  of  obtaining  that  of  which  her  father 
1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  76.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  79,  80. 


A  Bargain  Struck 


107 


stood  in  need.  On  this  occasion  it  was  money ; 
on  the  next  her  life  was  to  be  staked  upon  a  more 
desperate  hazard.  In  future  she  appears  and  dis- 
appears, now  in  sight,  now  passing  behind  the  scenes, 
against  the  dark  background  of  intrigue  and  hatred 
and  bloodshed  belonging  to  her  times. 


CHAPTER  IX 
1548—1549 

Seymour  and  the  Princess  Elizabeth — His  courtship — He  is  sent 
to  the  Tower — Elizabeth's  examinations  and  admissions — The 
execution  of  the  Lord  Admiral. 

THE  matter  of  Jane's  guardianship  satisfactorily 
settled,  Seymour  turned  his  attention  to  one 
concerning  him  yet  more  intimately.  He  was  a 
free  man,  and  he  meant  to  make  use  of  his  freedom. 
As  after  the  death  of  Henry,  so  now  when  fate  ren- 
dered the  project  once  more  possible,  he  determined 
to  attempt  to  obtain  the  Princess  Elizabeth  as  his 
wife.  The  history  of  the  autumn,  as  regarding 
him,  is  of  his  continued  efforts  to  increase  his 
power  and  influence  in  the  country  and  to  win 
the  hand  of  the  King's  sister.  Again  the  con- 
temporary Spanish  chronicler  supplies  a  popular 
summary  of  the  affair  which,  inaccurate  as  it  is,  is 
useful  in  showing  how  his  scheme  was  regarded  by 
the  public. 

According  to  this  dramatic  account  of  his  proceed- 
ings, the  Admiral  went  boldly  before  the  Council  ; 
observed  that,  as  uncle  to  the  King,  it  was  fitting 
that  he  should  marry  honourably  ;  and  that,  having 

108 


Seymour,  Elizabeth's  Suitor  109 

formerly  been  husband  to  the  Queen,  it  would  not 
be  much  more  were  he  to  be  accorded  Madam 
Elizabeth,  whom  he  deserved  better  than  any  other 
man.  Referred  by  the  Lords  of  the  Council  to  the 
Protector,  he  is  represented  as  approaching  the 
Duke  with  the  modest  request  that  he  might  be 
granted  not  only  Elizabeth  as  his  bride,  but  also  the 
custody  of  the  King. 

"  When  his  brother  heard  this,  he  said  he  would 
see  about  it."  Calling  the  Council  together,  he 
repeated  to  them  the  demand  made  by  the  Admiral 
that  his  nephew  should  be  placed  in  his  hands  ; 
continuing,  as  the  Lords  "looked  at  each  other," 
that  the  matter  must  be  well  considered,  since  in  his 
opinion  his  brother  could  have  no  good  intent  in 
asking  first  for  the  Princess,  and  then  for  the  custody 
of  the  King.  "The  devil  is  strong,"  said  the 
Protector.  "  He  might  kill  the  King  and  Madam 
Mary,  and  then  claim  the  crown."  x 

Whilst  this  was  the  version  of  the  Admiral's 
project  current  in  the  street,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
his  desire  to  obtain  a  royal  princess  for  his  wife  was 
calculated  to  accentuate  the  distrust  with  which 
he  was  regarded  by  the  Protector  and  his  friends. 
He  was  well  known  to  aspire  to  at  least  a  share 
in  the  government.  As  Elizabeth's  husband 
his  position  would  be  so  much  strengthened  that  it 
might  be  difficult  to  deny  it  to  him,  or  to  main- 

1  Chronicle  of  King  Henry  VIII.,  p.  163. 


no  Lady  Jane  Grey 

tain  the  right  of  Somerset  to  retain  supreme 
power.  His  proceedings  were  therefore  watched 
with  jealous  vigilance,  his  designs  upon  the  King's 
sister  becoming  quickly  matter  of  public  gossip. 
It  was  not  a  day  marked  by  an  over-scrupulous 
observance  of  respect  for  the  dead,  and  Katherine 
was  hardly  in  her  grave  before  the  question  of  her 
successor  was  freely  canvassed  amongst  those  chiefly 
concerned  in  it. 

"  When  I  asked  her  [Ashley]  what  news  she 
had  from  London,"  Elizabeth  admitted  when  under 
examination  at  a  later  date,  "  she  answered  merrily 
1  They  say  that  your  Grace  shall  have  my  Lord 
Admiral,  and  that  he  will  shortly  come  to  woo 
you.' "  » 

The  woman,  an  intriguer  by  nature  and  keen 
to  advance  Seymour's  interests,  would  have  further 
persuaded  her  mistress  to  write  a  letter  of  condo- 
lence to  comfort  him  in  his  sorrow,  "  because,"  as 
Elizabeth  explained,  "he  had  been  my  friend  in 
the  Queen's  lifetime  and  would  think  great  kindness 
therein.  Then  I  said  I  would  not,  for  he  needs 
it  not." 

The  blunt  sincerity  prompting  the  girl's  refusal 
did  her  credit.  It  must  have  been  patent  to  all 
acquainted  with  the  situation,  and  most  of  all  to 
Elizabeth,  that  the  new-made  widower  stood  in  no 
need  of  consolation.  But,  in  spite  of  her  refusal 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  89. 


Seymour's  Suit  m 

to  open  communications  with  him,  and  though 
a  visit  proposed  by  Seymour  was  discouraged  "  for 
fear  of  suspicion,"  he  can  have  felt  little  doubt  that 
in  a  struggle  with  Protector  and  Council  he  would 
have  the  Princess  on  his  side. 

In  Seymour's  household,  naturally  concerned  in 
his  fortunes,  the  projected  marriage  was  a  subject  of 
anxious  debate  ;  and  it  was  recognised  by  its  members 
that  their  master  was  playing  a  perilous  game.  In  a 
conversation  between  two  of  his  dependants,  Nicholas 
Throckmorton  and  one  Wightman,  both  shook  their 
heads  over  the  risk  he  would  run  should  he  attempt 
to  carry  his  plan  into  effect. 

Beginning  with  the  conventional  acknowledgment 
of  the  Admiral's  great  loss,  they  wisely  decided  that 
it  might  after  all  turn  to  his  advantage,  in  "  making 
him  more  humble  in  heart  and  stomach  towards  my 
Lord  Protector's  Grace."  It  was  also  hoped  that, 
Katherine  being  dead,  the  Duchess  of  Somerset 
might  forget  old  grudges  and,  unless  by  his  own 
fault,  be  once  again  favourable  towards  her  husband's 
brother.  The  two  men  nevertheless  agreed  that  the 
world  was  beginning  to  speak  evil  of  Seymour,  and, 
discussing  the  chances  of  his  attempt  to  match  with 
one  of  the  Princesses,  they  determined,  as  they  loved 
him,  to  do  their  best  to  prevent  it,  Wightman  in 
especial  engaging  to  do  all  he  could  to  "  break  the 
dance."  l 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers. 


ii2  Lady  Jane  Grey 

If  Seymour  was  going  to  his  ruin  it  was  not  to  be 
for  lack  of  warnings.  Sleeping  at  the  house  of 
Katherine's  friends,  the  Tyrwhitts,  one  night  soon 
after  her  death,  the  question  of  a  marriage  with 
a  sister  of  the  King's  was  mooted  ;  when,  although 
Seymour's  aspirations  were  not  definitely  mentioned, 
Sir  Robert  spoke  in  a  fashion  frankly  discouraging 
to  any  scheme  of  the  kind  on  the  part  of  his  guest. 

Conversing  after  supper  with  his  hostess,  Seymour 
called  to  her  husband  as  he  passed  by,  saying  jestingly 
that  he  was  talking  with  my  lady  his  wife  in 
divinity — or  divining  of  the  future  ;  that  he  had 
told  her  he  wished  the  crown  of  England  might  be 
in  as  good  a  surety  as  that  of  France,  where  it  was 
well  known  who  was  heir.  So  would  it  be  in 
England  were  the  Princesses  married. 

Tyrwhitt  answered  drily.  Whosoever  married 
one  of  them  without  the  consent  of  King  or  Council, 
he  said  he  would  not  wish  to  be  in  his  place. 

<c  Why  so  ?  "  asked  the  Admiral.  If  he,  for  in- 
stance, had  married  thus,  would  it  not  be  surety  for 
the  King  ?  Was  he  not  made  by  the  King  ?  Had  he 
not  all  he  had  by  the  King  ?  Was  he  not  most  bound 
to  serve  him  truly  ? 

Tyrwhitt  refused  to  be  convinced,  reiterating  that 
the  man  who  married  either  Princess  had  better  be 
stronger  than  the  Council,  for  "  if  they  catch  hold  of 
him,  they  will  shut  him  up." 1 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  109. 


Seymour's  Suit  113 

Lord  Russell,  the  Lord  Privy  Seal,  spoke  no 
less  openly  to  the  adventurer  of  the  danger  he  was 
running.  The  two  were  riding  together  to  Parlia- 
ment House  in  the  Protector's  train,  when  Russell 
opened  the  subject  by  observing  that  certain 
rumours  were  abroad  which  he  was  very  sorry  to 
hear,  and  that  if  the  Admiral  were  seeking  to  marry 
either  of  the  King's  sisters — the  special  one  being  left 
discreetly  uncertain — "  ye  seek  the  means  to  undo 
yourself  and  all  those  who  shall  come  of  you." 

Seymour  replied  carelessly  that  he  had  no  such 
thought,  and  the  subject  dropped.  A  few  days  later, 
however,  he  himself  re-introduced  it,  demanding 
what  reason  existed  to  prevent  him,  or  another  man, 
wedding  one  of  the  late  King's  daughters  ?  Again 
Russell  reiterated  his  warning.  The  marriage,  he 
declared,  would  prove  fatal  to  him  who  made  it, 
proceeding  to  point  out — knowing  that  the  argument 
would  have  more  weight  with  the  man  with  whom 
he  had  to  do  than  recommendations  to  caution  and 
prudence — that  from  a  pecuniary  point  of  view  the 
match  would  carry  with  it  no  great  advantage,  a 
statement  vehemently  controverted  by  the  Admiral, 
who  throughout  neither  felt  nor  feigned  any  in- 
difference to  the  financial  aspect  of  the  affair. 

During  the  ensuing  months  he  was  busily  engaged 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  scheme.  He  may  have  had 
a  genuine  liking  for  the  girl  to  whom  his  atten- 
tions had  already  proved  compromising  ;  he  could 

8 


H4  Lady  Jane  Grey 

scarcely  doubt  that  he  had  won  her  affections. 
But  by  a  clandestine  marriage  Elizabeth  would,  under 
the  terms  of  her  father's  will,  have  forfeited  her  right 
to  the  succession,  and  she  was  therefore  safeguarded 
from  any  attempt  on  her  suitor's  part  to  induce  her 
to  dispense  with  the  consent  of  the  lawful  authorities. 
Forced  to  proceed  with  circumspection,  he  made  use 
of  any  opportunity  that  offered  for  maintaining  a 
hold  upon  her,  aided  and  abetted  by  the  partisanship 
of  her  servants.  A  fortnight  before  Christmas  he 
proffered  the  loan  of  his  London  house  as  a  lodging 
when  she  should  pay  her  winter  visit  to  the 
capital,  adding  to  her  cofferer,  through  whom  the 
suggestion  was  made,  that  he  would  come  and  see 
her  Grace  ;  "  which  declaration,"  reported  to  her  by 
Parry,  "  she  seemed  to  take  very  gladly  and  to  accept 
it  joyfully."  Observing,  moreover,  that  when  the  con- 
versation turned  upon  Seymour,  and  especially  when 
he  was  commended,  the  Princess  "  showed  such 
countenance  that  it  should  appear  she  was  very  glad 
to  hear  of  him,"  the  cofferer  was  emboldened  to 
inquire  whether,  should  the  Council  approve,  she 
would  marry  him. 

"  When  that  time  comes  to  pass,"  answered 
Elizabeth,  in  the  language  of  the  day,  "  I  will  do  as 
God  shall  put  in  my  mind." 

Notwithstanding  her  refusal  to  commit  herself,  it 
was  not  difficult  for  those  about  her  to  divine  after 
what  fashion  she  would,  in  that  case,  be  moved  to 


Elizabeth's  Conduct  115 

act.  Yet  she  retained  her  independence  of  spirit, 
and  when  told  that  the  Admiral  advised  her  to 
appeal  to  the  Protector  through  his  wife  for 
certain  grants  of  land,  as  well  as  for  a  London 
residence,  she  turned  upon  those  who  had  played 
the  part  of  his  mouthpiece  in  a  manner  indicating  no 
intention  of  becoming  his  passive  tool. 

"  I  dare  say  he  did  not  so,"  she  replied  hotly, 
refusing  to  credit  the  suggestion  he  was  reported 
to  have  made  that  she,  a  Tudor,  should  sue  to  his 
brother's  wife  in  order  to  obtain  her  rights,  "  nor 
would  so." 

Parry  adhered  to  his  statement. 

"  Yes,"  he  answered,  "  by  my  faith." 

"  Well,  I  will  not  do  so,"  returned  his  mistress, 
"  and  so  tell  him.  I  will  not  come  there,  nor  begin 
to  flatter  now." 

If  the  Admiral  possessed  partisans  in  the  members 
of  Elizabeth's  household,  it  was  probably  no  less 
owing  to  hostility  towards  the  Somersets  than  to 
liking  for  himself;  a  passage  of  arms  having  taken 
place  between  Mrs.  Ashley  and  the  Duchess,  who  had 
found  fault  with  the  governess,  on  account  of  the 
Princess  having  gone  on  a  barge  on  the  Thames  by 
night,  "  and  for  other  light  parts,"  observing — in 
which  she  was  undoubtedly  right — that  Ashley  was 
not  worthy  to  have  the  charge  of  the  daughter  of 
a  King.  Such  home-truths  were  not  unfitted  to 
quicken  the  culprit's  zeal  in  the  cause  of  the 


ii6  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Admiral,  and  Ashley  was  always  at  hand  to  push 
his  interests. 

It  was,  nevertheless,  necessary  that  the  Princess's 
dependants  should  act  with  caution  ;  and,  discussing 
with  Lord  Seymour  the  question  of  a  visit  he 
desired  to  pay  her,  Parry  declined  to  give  any 
opinion  on  the  subject,  professing  himself  unac- 
quainted with  his  mistress's  pleasure.  The  Admiral 
answered  with  assumed  indifference.  It  was  no 
matter,  he  said,  "  for  there  has  been  a  talk  of 
late.  .  .  .  they  say  now  I  shall  marry  my  Lady 
Jane,"  adding,  "  I  tell  you  this  but  merrily,  I  tell 
you  this  but  merrily."  l 

The  gossip  may  have  been  repeated  in  the  cer- 
tainty that  it  would  reach  Elizabeth's  ears  and  in  the 
hope  of  rousing  her  to  jealousy.  But  had  it  suited 
his  plans,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Seymour 
would  not  have  hesitated  to  gain  permanent  posses- 
sion of  the  ward  who  had  been  left  him  "  as  a  gage." 
Elizabeth  was,  however,  nearer  to  the  throne, 
and  was,  beside  her  few  additional  years,  better 
suited  to  please  his  taste  than  the  quiet  child  who 
dwelt  under  his  roof. 

As  it  proved  he  was  destined  to  further  his 
ambitious  projects  neither  by  marriage  with  Jane 
nor  her  cousin.  By  the  middle  of  January  the 
Protector  had  struck  his  blow — a  blow  which  was 
to  end  in  fratricide.  Charged  with  treason,  in  con- 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  98. 


Seymour  in  the  Tower  n? 

spiring  to  change  the  form  of  government  and  to 
carry  off  the  person  of  the  King,  Seymour  was  sent 
on  January  1 6  to  the  Tower — in  those  days  so  often 
the  ante-room  to  death. 

Though  he  had  long  been  suspected  of  harbouring 
designs  against  his  brother's  administration,  the 
specific  grounds  of  his  accusation  were  based  upon 
the  confessions  of  one  Sherrington,  master  of  the 
mint  at  Bristol ;  who,  under  examination,  and  in 
terror  for  his  personal  safety,  had  declared,  truly 
or  falsely,  that  he  had  promised  to  coin  money  for 
the  Admiral,  and  had  heard  him  boast  of  the 
number  of  his  friends,  saying  that  he  thought  more 
gentlemen  loved  him  than  loved  the  Lord  Protector. 
The  same  witness  added  that  he  had  heard  Seymour 
say  that,  for  her  qualities  and  virtues,  Lady  Jane 
Grey  was  a  fit  match  for  the  King,  and  he  would 
rather  he  should  marry  her  than  the  daughter 
of  the  Protector. 

Many  of  great  name  and  place  in  England  must 
have  been  disquieted  by  the  news  of  the  arrest  of 
the  man  who  stood  so  near  the  King,  and  who,  if 
any  one,  could  have  counted  upon  being  safeguarded 
by  position  and  rank  from  the  consequences  of  his 
rashness.  His  assertion  that  he  was  more  loved 
than  his  brother  amongst  his  own  class  was  true, 
and  not  a  few  nobles  will  have  trembled  lest 
they  should  be  implicated  in  his  fall.  Loyalty  to 
a  disgraced  friend  was  not  amongst  the  customs  of 


n8  Lady  Jane  Grey 

a  day  when  the  friendship  might  mean  death, 
and  most  men  were  anxious,  on  these  occasions,  to 
dissociate  themselves  from  a  former  comrade. 

Elizabeth  was  not  one  of  those  with  least  to  fear, 
and  it  is  the  more  honourable  to  her  that  she  showed 
no  inclination  to  follow  the  example  of  others,  or 
to  abandon  the  cause  of  her  lover.  She  was  in 
an  embarrassing,  if  not  a  dangerous  situation. 
No  one  knew  to  what  extent  she  had  been  com- 
promised, morally  or  politically,  and  the  distrust 
of  the  Government  was  proved  by  the  arrest  of 
both  Ashley  and  Parry,  and  by  the  searching 
examination  to  which  the  Princess,  as  well  as  her 
servants,  was  subjected. 

Sir  Robert  Tyrwhitt,  placed  in  charge  of  the 
delinquent,  with  directions  to  obtain  from  her  all 
the  information  he  could,  found  it  no  easy  task. 

"  I  do  assure  your  Grace,"  he  wrote  to  Somerset, 
"  she  hath  a  good  wit,  and  nothing  is  to  be  got 
from  her  but  by  great  policy." 

She  would  own  to  no  "  practice "  with  regard 
to  Seymour,  either  on  her  part  or  that  of  her 
dependants.  "  And  yet  I  do  see  in  her  face,"  said 
Sir  Robert,  "  that  she  is  guilty,  and  yet  perceive 
she  will  abide  more  storms  before  she  will  accuse 
Mrs.  Ashley." 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Elizabeth's  former 
conduct,  she  displayed  at  this  crisis  no  less  staunch- 
ness and  fidelity  in  the  support  of  those  she  loved 


Elizabeth  under  Suspicion  119 

than  a  capacity  and  ability  rare  in  a  girl  of  fifteen, 
practically  standing  alone,  confronted  with  enemies, 
and  without  advisers  to  direct  her  course.  Writing 
to  the  Protector  on  January  28,  she  thanked  him 
for  the  gentleness  and  good  will  he  had  displayed  ; 
professed  her  readiness  to  declare  the  truth  in  the 
matter  at  issue  ;  gave  an  account  of  her  relations 
with  the  Admiral,  asserting  her  innocence  of  any 
intention  of  marrying  him  without  the  sanction  of 
the  Council ;  and  vindicated  her  servants  from  blame. 

"  These  be  the  things,"  she  concluded,  "  which 
I  declared  to  Master  Tyrwhitt,  and  also  whereof 
my  conscience  beareth  witness,  which  I  would  not 
for  all  earthly  things  offend  in  anything,  for  I  know 
I  have  a  soul  to  be  saved  as  well  as  other  folks 
have  ;  wherefore  I  will,  above  all  things,  have  respect 
unto  the  same."  One  request  she  made,  namely, 
that  she  might  come  to  Court.  Rumours  against 
her  honour  were  afloat,  accusing  her  with  being  with 
child  by  the  Lord  Admiral ;  and  upon  these  grounds, 
that  she  might  show  herself  as  she  was,  as  well  as 
upon  a  desire  to  see  the  King,  she  based  her 
demand. 

Tyrwhitt  shook  his  head  over  the  composition. 
The  singular  harmony  existing  between  Elizabeth's 
story  and  the  depositions  extracted  from  her 
dependants  in  the  Tower  struck  him  as  suspicious, 
and  as  pointing  to  a  preconcerted  tale. 

"  They  all  sing  one  song,"  he  wrote,  "  and  so,  I 


120  Lady  Jane  Grey 

think,  they  would  not,  unless  they  had  set  the  note 
before "  ;  and  he  continued  to  watch  his  charge 
narrowly,  and  to  report  her  demeanour  at  head- 
quarters, assisted  in  his  office  by  his  wife,  who 
had  been  sent  to  replace  the  untrustworthy  Ashley 
as  governess  to  the  Princess. 

"She  beginneth  now  a  little  to  droop,"  he  wrote, 
"  by  reason  she  heareth  that  my  Lord  Admiral's 
houses  be  dispersed.  And  my  wife  telleth  me  she 
cannot  hear  him  discommended,  but  she  is  ready  to 
make  answer  thereto." 

Put  as  brave  a  face  as  she  might  upon  the  matter, 
Elizabeth  was  in  a  position  of  singular  loneliness 
and  difficulty.  Her  lover  was  in  prison  on  a 
capital  charge,  her  friend  and  confidant  removed 
from  her,  her  reputation  tarnished.  Nor  was  she 
disposed  to  accept  in  a  humble  spirit  the  oversight 
of  the  duenna  sent  her  by  the  Council.  As  the 
close  friend  of  the  step-mother  whose  kindness  the 
Princess  had  so  ill  requited,  Lady  Tyrvvhitt,  for 
her  part,  would  not  in  any  case  have  been  prejudiced 
in  favour  of  her  charge,  or  inclined  to  take  an 
indulgent  view  of  her  misdemeanours ;  and  the 
reception  accorded  her  when  she  arrived  to  assume 
her  thankless  post  was  not  such  as  to  promote  good 
feeling.  Mrs.  Ashley,  the  girl  told  the  new-comer, 
was  her  mistress,  and  she  had  not  so  conducted 
herself  that  the  Council  should  give  her  another. 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  108. 


The  Tyrwhitts  in  Charge  121 

Lady  Tyrwhitt,  no  more  inclined  than  she  to 
conciliation,  retorted  that,  seeing  the  Princess  had 
allowed  Mrs.  Ashley  to  be  her  mistress,  she  need 
not  be  ashamed  to  have  any  other  honest  woman 
in  that  place,  and  so  the  intercourse  of  governess 
and  pupil  was  inaugurated. 

That  Lady  Tyrwhitt's  taunt  was  undeniably 
justified  did  not  the  more  soften  the  Princess  towards 
her,  and  it  was  duly  reported  to  the  authorities  in 
London  that  she  had  taken  "  the  matter  so  heavily 
that  she  wept  all  that  night  and  lowered  all  the 
next  day.  .  .  .  The  love,"  it  was  added,  "  she 
yet  beareth  [Ashley]  is  to  be  wondered  at." 

Tact  and  discretion  might  in  time  have  availed 
to  reconcile  the  Princess  to  the  change  in  her  house- 
hold ;  but  the  methods  employed  by  the  Tyrwhitts 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  judicious.  Sir  Robert, 
taking  up  his  wife's  quarrel,  told  her  significantly 
that  if  she  considered  her  honour  she  would  rather 
ask  to  have  a  mistress  than  to  be  left  without  one  ; 
and,  complaining  to  his  superiors  that  she  could 
not  digest  his  advice  in  any  way,  added  vindictively, 
"  If  I  should  say  my  phantasy,  it  were  more  meet 
she  should  have  two  than  one."  l 

So  the  days  went  by,  no  doubt  uncomfortably 
enough  for  all  concerned.  Regarding  Tyrwhitt  and 
his  wife  in  the  capacity  of  gaolers,  charged  with 
the  duty  of  eliciting  her  confessions,  it  was  not 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  71. 


122  Lady  Jane  Grey 

with  them  that  Elizabeth  would  take  counsel  as 
to  the  best  course  open  to  her.  The  revelations 
attained  by  cross-examination  from  her  imprisoned 
servants  as  to  the  relations  upon  which  she  had 
stood  during  the  Queen's  lifetime  with  Katherine's 
husband,  were  sufficiently  damaging  to  lend  additional 
colour  to  the  scandalous  reports  in  circulation,  and 
her  spirited  demand  that  her  fair  fame  should  be 
vindicated  by  a  proclamation  forbidding  the  pro- 
pagation of  slanders  concerning  the  King's  sister 
was  fully  in  character  with  the  woman  she  was  to 
become.  Though  not  without  delay,  her  request 
was  granted,  and  the  circumstantial  fable  of  a  child 
born  and  destroyed  may  be  supposed  to  have  been 
effectually  suppressed. 

Whilst  this  had  been  Elizabeth's  condition  during 
the  spring,  the  man  to  whom  her  troubles  were 
chiefly  due  had  been  undergoing  alternations  of 
hope  and  fear.  It  may  have  seemed  impossible 
that  his  brother  should  proceed  to  extremities. 
But  there  were  times  when,  in  the  silence  and 
seclusion  of  the  prison-house,  his  spirits  grew 
despondent.  On  February  16,  when  his  con- 
finement had  lasted  a  month,  and  his  fate  was  still 
undecided,  his  keeper,  Christopher  Eyre,  reported 
that  on  the  previous  Friday  the  Lord  Admiral  had 
been  very  sad. 

"  I  had  thought,"  he  said,  upon  Eyre  remarking 
on  his  depression,  "  before  I  came  to  this  place 


Seymour  Deserted  123 

that  my  Lord's  Grace,  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
Council,  had  been  my  friends,  and  that  I  had  as 
many  friends  as  any  man  within  this  realm.  But 
now  I  think  they  have  forgotten  me,"  proceeding 
to  declare  that  never  was  poor  knave  more  true 
to  his  Prince  than  he  ;  nor  had  he  meant  evil  to 
his  brother,  though  he  had  thought  he  might  have 
had  the  custody  of  the  King.1 

There  is  something  pathetic  in  the  dejection  of 
the  Admiral,  arrogant,  proud,  vain  and  ambitious, 
thus  deserted  by  all  upon  whose  friendship  he  had 
imagined  himself  able  to  count.  It  is  impossible 
to  avoid  the  conviction  that,  in  spite  of  a  surface 
boldness,  the  nobles  of  his  day  were  apt  to  turn 
craven  where  personal  danger  was  in  question.  On  the 
battlefield  valour  was  common  enough,  and  when 
once  hope  was  over  men  had  learnt — a  need- 
ful lesson — to  meet  death  on  the  scaffold  with 
dignity  and  courage.  But  so  long  as  a  chance  of 
life  remained,  it  was  their  constant  habit  to  abase 
themselves  in  order  to  escape  their  doom.  We  do 
not  hear  of  a  single  voice  raised  in  Seymour's 
defence.  The  common  people,  when  Somerset  in 
his  turn  had  fallen  a  victim  to  jealousy  and  hate, 
made  no  secret  of  their  sorrow  and  their  love  ;  but 
the  nobles  who  had  been  his  brother's  supporters 
were  silent  and  cowed,  or  went  to  swell  the  number 
of  his  accusers. 

1  Haynes,  State  Papers,  p.  106. 


124  Lady  Jane  Grey 

By  March  20  hope  and  fear  were  alike  at  an  end. 
A  Bill  of  Attainder  had  been  brought  into  the 
House  of  Lords,  after  an  examination  of  the  culprit 
before  the  Council,  when  his  demand  to  be  con- 
fronted with  his  accusers  had  been  refused.  The 
evidence  against  him  was  reiterated  by  certain  of 
the  peers  ;  the  bill  was  passed  without  a  division  ; 
and,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Commons,  who 
supported  his  claim  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defence, 
the  Protector  cut  the  matter  short  by  a  message 
from  the  King  declaring  it  unnecessary  that  the 
demand  should  be  conceded.  His  doom  was  sealed. 

Was  he  innocent  or  guilty  ?  Dr.  Lingard,  after 
an  examination  of  the  facts,  believes  that  he  was 
unjustly  condemned ;  that,  if  he  had  sought  a 
portion  of  the  power  vested  in  the  Protector,  and 
might  have  been  dangerous  to  the  authority  of  his 
brother,  the  charge  for  which  he  was  condemned — 
a  design  to  carry  off  the  King  and  excite  a  civil 
war — is  unproved. 

Innocent  or  guilty,  he  was  to  die.  In  the  words 
of  Latimer — who,  in  sermons  preached  after  the 
execution,  made  himself  the  apologist  of  the  Council 
by  abuse  levelled  at  the  dead  man — he  perished 
"  dangerously,  irksomely,  horribly.  .  .  .  Whether 
he  be  saved  or  no,  I  leave  it  to  God.  But  surely 
he  was  a  wicked  man,  and  the  realm  is  well  rid 
of  him."1 
1  Latimer's  Sermons,  quoted  by  Lingard,  History,  vol.  v.,  p.  279. 


Thus  Thomas  Seymour  was  done  to  death  by 
a  brother,  and  cursed  by  a  churchman.  Sherrington, 
who  had  supplied  the  principal  part  of  the  evidence 
against  him,  received  a  pardon  and  was  reinstated 
in  his  office. 

Of  regret  upon  the  part  of  friends  or  kinsfolk 
there  is  singularly  little  token.  As  they  had  fallen 
from  his  side  in  life,  so  they  held  apart  from  him 
in  death.  If  Elizabeth  mourned  him  she  was 
already  too  well  versed  in  the  world's  wisdom  to 
avow  her  grief,  and  is  reported  to  have  observed, 
on  his  execution,  that  a  man  had  died  full  of  ability 
(esprit')  but  of  scant  judgment.1  Whether  or  not 
the  Lord  Protector  was  troubled  by  remorse,  he  was 
not  likely  to  make  the  public  his  confidant  ;  and 
Katherine,  the  woman  who  had  loved  him  so  de- 
votedly, was  dead. 

1  Leti,  Vie  de  la  Reine  Elizabeth. 


CHAPTER   X 
1549—1550 

The  Protector's  position — Disaffection  in  the  country — Its  causes— 
The  Duke's  arrogance — Warwick  his  rival — The  success  of 
his  opponents — Placed  in  the  Tower,  but  released— St.  George's 
Day  at  Court. 

THE  Protector's  conduct  with  regard  to  his 
brother  does  much  to  alienate  sympathy  from 
him  in  his  approaching  fall,  in  a  sense  the  con- 
sequence and  outcome  of  the  fratricide.  He  a  had 
sealed  his  doom  the  day  on  which  he  signed  the 
warrant  for  the  execution  of  his  brother."  If 
the  Admiral,  having  crossed  his  will,  was  not  safe, 
who  could  believe  himself  to  be  so  ?  Yet  the  fashion 
of  the  accomplishing  of  his  downfall,  the  treachery  and 
deception  practised  towards  him  by  men  upon  whom 
he  might  fairly  have  believed  himself  able  to  count, 
lend  a  pathos  to  the  end  it  might  otherwise  have 
lacked. 

For  the  present  his  power  and  position  showed 
no  signs  of  diminution.  The  Queen,  his  wife's 
rival,  was  dead.  The  Admiral,  who  had  dared  to 
measure  his  strength  against  his  brother's,  would 

1  Lingard,  History,  vol.  v.,  p.  293. 
126 


Somerset's  Wealth  127 

trouble  him  no  more,  unless  as  an  unquiet  ghost, 
an  unwelcome  visitant  confronting  him  in  un- 
expected places.  During  his  Protectorate  he  had 
added  property  to  property,  field  to  field,  and 
was  the  master  of  two  hundred  manors.  If 
the  public  finances  were  low,  Somerset  was  rich, 
and  during  this  year  the  building  of  the  house 
destined  to  bear  his  name  was  carried  on  on  a 
scale  of  splendour  proportionate  to  his  pretensions. 
Having  thrown  away  the  chief  prop  of  his  house, 
says  Heylyn,  he  hoped  to  repair  the  ruin  by  erecting 
a  magnificent  palace. 

The  site  he  had  chosen  was  occupied  by  three 
episcopal  mansions  and  one  parish  church  ;  but  it 
would  have  been  a  bold  man  who  would  have  dis- 
puted the  will  of  the  all-powerful  Lord  Protector, 
and  the  owners  submitted  meekly  to  be  dispossessed 
in  order  to  make  room  for  his  new  abode.  Materials 
running  short,  there  were  rough-and-ready  ways 
of  providing  them  conveniently  near  at  hand  ;  and 
certain  "  superstitious  buildings  "  close  to  St.  Paul's, 
including  one  or  two  chapels  and  a  "  fair  charnel- 
house  "  were  demolished  to  supply  what  was  neces- 
sary, the  bones  of  the  displaced  dead  being  left  to 
find  burial  in  the  adjacent  fields,  or  where  they  might. 
As  the  great  pile  rose,  more  was  required,  and 
St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  was  to  have  been 
destroyed  to  furnish  it,  had  not  the  people,  less 
subservient  than  the  Bishops,  risen  to  protect  their 


128  Lady  Jane  Grey 

church,  and  forcibly  driven  away  the  labourers 
charged  with  the  work  of  destruction.  St.  Mar- 
garet's was  saved,  but  St.  John's  of  Jerusalem,  not 
far  from  Smithfield,  was  sacrificed  in  its  stead,  being 
blown  up  with  gunpowder  in  order  that  its  stone- 
work might  be  turned  to  account. 

The  Protector  pursued  his  way  unconscious  of 
danger.  The  Earl  of  Warwick,  his  future  supplanter, 
looked  on  and  bided  his  time.  The  condition  of 
the  country  had  become  such  as  to  facilitate  the 
designs  of  those  bent  upon  a  change  in  the  Govern- 
ment. Into  the  course  of  public  affairs,  at  home 
and  abroad,  it  is  impossible  to  enter  at  length  ;  a 
brief  summary  will  suffice  to  show  that  events 
were  tending  to  create  discontent  and  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  Somerset's  enemies. 

The  victory  of  Pinkie  Cleugh,  though  gratifying 
to  national  pride,  had  in  nowise  served  the  purpose 
of  terminating  the  war  with  Scotland.  Renewed 
with  varying  success,  the  Scots,  by  means  of  French 
aid,  had  upon  the  whole  improved  their  position, 
and  the  hopes  indulged  in  England  of  a  union 
between  the  two  countries,  to  be  peacefully  effected 
by  the  marriage  of  the  King  with  the  infant  Mary 
Stuart,  had  been  disappointed,  the  little  Queen 
having  been  sent  to  France  and  affianced  to  the 
Dauphin.  In  the  distress  prevailing  amongst 
the  working  classes  of  England,  more  pressing 
cause  for  dissatisfaction  and  agitation  was  found. 


Condition  of  the  Country  129 

Partly  the  result  of  the  depreciation  of  the  currency 
during  the  late  reign,  it  was  also  due  to  the  action 
of  the  new  owners  who,  enriched  by  ecclesiastical 
property,  had  enclosed  portions  of  Church  lands 
heretofore  left  open  to  be  utilised  by  the  labourers 
for  their  personal  profit.  Pasturage  was  increasing 
in  favour  compared  with  tillage  ;  less  labour  was 
required,  and  wages  had  in  consequence  fallen. 

To  material  ills  and  privations,  other  grievances 
were  added.  Associated  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
with  their  condition  of  want  were  the  changes  lately 
enforced  in  the  sphere  of  religion.  The  new  minis- 
ters were  often  ignorant  men,  who  gave  scandal  by 
their  manner  of  life,  their  parishioners  frequently 
making  complaints  of  them  to  the  Bishops. 

"  Our  curate  is  naught,"  they  would  say,  "  an 
ass-head,  a  dodipot  [?],  a  lack-latin,  and  can  do 
nothing.  Shall  I  pay  him  tithe  that  doth  us  no 
good,  nor  none  will  do  ? " 1 

In  some  cases  the  fault  lay  with  patrons,  who 
preferred  to  select  a  man  unlikely  to  assert  his 
authority.  Economy  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  responsible  for  other  unfit  appointments, 
and  capable  Churchmen  being  permitted  to  hold 
secular  offices,  they  were  removed  from  their  parishes 
and  their  flocks  were  left  unshepherded.  Against 
this  practice  Latimer  protested  in  a  sermon  at  St. 
Paul's,  on  the  occasion  of  a  clergyman  having  been 
1  Strype's  Ecclesiastical  Memorials,  vol.  ii.,  p.  2. 

9 


Lady  Jane  Grey 

made  Comptroller  of  the  Mint.  Who  controlled 
the  devil  at  home  in  his  parish,  asked  the  rough- 
tongued  preacher,  whilst  he  controlled  the  Mint  ? 

The  condition  of  things  thus  produced  was  not 
calculated  to  commend  the  innovations  it  accom- 
panied to  the  people,  and  the  introduction  of  the 
new  Prayer-book  was  in  particular  bitterly  resented 
in  country  districts.  In  many  parts  of  England, 
interest  and  religion  joining  hands,  fierce  insurrec- 
tions broke  out,  and  the  measures  taken  by  "  the 
good  Duke  "  to  allay  popular  irritation,  by  ordering 
that  the  lands  newly  enclosed  should  be  re-opened, 
had  the  double  effect  of  stirring  the  people,  thus 
far  successful,  to  yet  more  strenuous  action  in 
vindication  of  their  rights,  and  of  increasing  the  dis- 
like and  distrust  with  which  his  irresponsible  exercise 
of  authority  was  regarded  by  the  upper  classes. 

Upon  domestic  troubles — Ket's  rebellion  in  Nor- 
folk, one  of  large  dimensions  in  the  west,  and 
others — followed  a  declaration  of  war  with  France, 
certain  successes  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  serving 
to  discredit  the  Protector  and  his  management  of 
affairs  still  further. 

Whilst  rich  and  poor  were  alike  disaffected  in 
the  country  at  large,  the  Duke  had  become  an 
object  of  jealousy  to  the  members  of  the  Council 
Board  who  were  responsible  for  having  placed 
him  in  the  position  he  occupied.  To  a  man  with 
the  sagacity  to  look  ahead  and  take  account  of  the 


Somerset's  Unpopularity  131 

forces   at  work,  it   must  have  been   plain  that  the 
possession  of  absolute  and  undivided  power  on  the 
part  of  a  subject  was  necessarily  fraught  with  danger, 
and    that    the    Duke's    astonishing    success    in    ob- 
taining   the    patent  conferring    upon    him    supreme 
and  regal  authority  contained  in  itself  the  seed  and 
prophecy  of  ruin.     But,  besides  more  serious  causes 
of  offence,  his  bearing  in  the  Council-chamber,  far 
from  being  adapted  to  conciliate  opposition,  further 
exasperated  his  colleagues  against   him.       Cranmer 
and  Paget  were  the  last  to  abandon  his  cause,  but 
on    May    8 — not   two    months   after  his   brother's 
execution — the    latter    wrote    to    give    him    frank 
warning  of  the  probable   consequences  of  his  "  great 
cholerick    fashions."     It   is   evident   that    a  stormy 
scene  had  taken  place  that  afternoon,  and  that  Paget 
must   have    been  strongly    convinced   of  the    need 
for  interference  before  he  addressed  his  remonstrance 
to  the  despotic  head  of  the  Government. 

"  Poor  Sir  Richard  a  Lee,"  he  wrote,  "  this  after- 
noon, after  your  Grace  had  very  sore,  and  much 
more  than  needed,  rebuked  him,  came  to  my  chamber 
weeping,  and  there  complaining,  as  far  as  became 
him,  of  your  handling  of  him,  seemed  almost  out  of 
wits  and  out  of  heart.  Your  Grace  had  put  him 
clean  out  of  countenance."  After  which  he  proceeded 
to  warn  the  Duke  solemnly,  "  for  the  very  love  he 
bore  him,"  of  the  consequences  should  he  not  change 
his  manner  of  conduct.1 

1  Tytler,  Edward  VI.  and  Mary,  vol.  i.,  p.  174. 


132  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Paget's  love  was  quickly  to  grow  cold.  During 
the  summer  the  various  rebellions  in  different  parts 
of  the  country  were  suppressed,  the  Earl  of  Warwick 
playing  an  important  part  in  the  operations.  On  Sep- 
tember 25  the  Protector  was,  to  all  appearance,  still 
in  fulness  of  power  and  authority.  By  October  1 3 
he  was  in  the  Tower. 

The  Spanish  spectator  again  supplies  an  account 
of  the  view  taken  by  the  man  in  the  street  of 
the  initiation  of  the  quarrel  which  led  to  the 
Duke's  disgrace  and  fall.  Returned  to  London, 
Warwick,  accompanied  by  the  captains,  English 
and  foreign,  who  had  served  under  him  against 
the  rebels,  is  said  to  have  come  to  Court  to 
demand  for  his  soldiers  the  rewards  he  considered 
their  due.  Met  by  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  the 
Protector  of  anything  over  and  above  their  ordinary 
wages,  his  indignation  found  vent.  If  money  was 
not  to  be  had,  it  was  because  of  the  sums  squandered 
by  the  Duke  in  building  his  own  palace.  The  French 
forts  were  already  lost.  If  the  Protector  continued 
in  power  he  would  end  by  losing  everything. 

Somerset  replied  with  no  less  heat.  He  deserved, 
he  said,  that  Warwick  should  speak  as  he  had  spoken, 
by  the  favour  he  had  shown  him.  Warwick 
having  retorted  that  it  was  with  himself  and  his 
colleagues  that  the  fault  lay,  since  they  had  bestowed 
so  much  power  on  the  Protector,  the  two  parted. 
Of  what  followed  Holinshed  gives  a  description. 


Emery  Walker  after  a  painting  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 
WILLIAM,    LORD   PAGET,    K.G. 


Opposition  to  the  Protectors  133 

"  Suddenly,  upon  what  occasion  many  marvelled 
but  few  knew,  every  lord  and  councillor  went 
through  the  city  weaponed,  and  had  their  servants 
likewise  weaponed  ...  to  the  great  wondering  of 
many  ;  and  at  the  last  a  great  assembly  of  the  said 
Council  was  made  at  the  Earl  of  Warwick's  lodging, 
which  was  then  at  Ely  Place,  in  Holborn,  whither  all 
the  confederates  came  privily  armed,  and  finally 
concluded  to  possess  the  Tower  of  London."1 

As  a  counterblast,  Somerset  issued  a  proclamation 
in  the  King's  name,  summoning  all  his  subjects  to 
Hampton  Court  for  his  defence  and  that  of  his  "  most 
entirely  beloved  uncle."  Open  war  was  declared. 

So  far  the  Archbishop  and  Paget,  both  resident 
with  the  Court,  together  with  the  two  Secretaries, 
had  adhered  to  the  Protector.  Upon  Cranmer,  if 
upon  any  one,  Somerset,  who  had  done  more  than 
any  other  person  to  establish  religion  upon  its  new 
basis,  should  have  been  able  to  count,  if  not  for 
support,  for  a  loyal  opposition.  But  fear  is  strong 
and — again  it  must  be  repeated — fidelity  to  the 
unfortunate  was  no  feature  of  the  times  ;  and  by 
both  Archbishop  and  Paget  the  cause  of  the  falling 
man  was  abandoned.  Not  only  did  they  secretly 
embrace  the  cause  of  the  party  headed  by  Warwick, 
but  private  directions  were  furnished  by  Paget  as  to 
the  means  to  be  employed  in  seizing  the  person  of 
the  Duke. 

1  Holinshed,  vol.  iii.,  p.  1014. 


134  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Meantime,  Hampton  Court  being  judged  insuffi- 
ciently secure,  Somerset,  with  a  guard  of  five  hundred 
men,  had  removed  the  King,  at  dead  of  night,  to 
Windsor,  a  graphic  account  of  the  journey  being 
given  by  the  chronicler. 

"  As  he  went  along  the  road  the  King  was  all 
armed,  and  carried  his  little  sword  drawn,  and  kept 
saying  to  the  people  on  the  way  : 

"  '  My  vassals,  will  you  help  me  against  the  people 
who  want  to  kill  me  ?  * 

"  And  everybody  cried  out, '  Sir,  we  will  all  die  for 
you.'  "  l 

Windsor  reached,  the  defence  of  the  Castle  and 
of  the  sovereign  was  wisely  entrusted,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  men  upon  whom  the  Duke  could  de- 
pend. But  the  Council  was  successful  in  lulling  any 
apprehensions  of  violent  action  to  rest.  Sir  Philip 
Hoby,  according  to  some  authorities, 2  was  despatched 
from  London  with  open,  as  well  as  secret,  letters, 
wherein  it  was  declared  that  no  harm  was  intended 
to  the  Duke  ;  order  was  merely  to  be  taken  for 
the  Protectorship.  Somerset  had  by  this  time 
yielded  so  far  to  the  forces  arrayed  against  him  as 
to  recognise  the  necessity  of  consenting  to  some 
change  in  the  government  ;  and  at  the  reassuring 
terms  of  the  communication  all  present  gave  way  to 

1  Chronicle  of  King  Henry  VIII.,  p.  187. 

1  See  Tytler,  Edward  VI.  and  Mary,  vol.  i.,  p.  241.  Dr.  Lingard 
expresses  doubts  as  to  the  document  upon  which  Tytler  relies,  and 
Froude  acquits  the  Council  of  treachery. 


Somerset's  Fall  135 

emotion  ;  wept  with  joy,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
times  ;  thanked  God,  and  prayed  for  the  Lords  ; 
Paget,  in  particular,  clasping  the  Duke  about  the 
knees,  and  crying  with  tears,  "  O  my  Lord,  ye  see 
what  my  lords  be  !  " 

The  Protector's  ruin  had  been  assured.  Trust- 
ing to  the  declarations  of  the  Council,  he  fell 
an  easy  prey  into  their  hands.  Yielding  to  the 
representations  of  Cranmer  and  Paget,  to  whose 
"  diligent  travail "  his  enemies  gratefully  ascribed 
their  success,  he  permitted  his  trusty  followers  to  be 
replaced  in  the  defence  of  the  Castle  by  the  usual 
royal  guard  ;  on  October  1 1  he  had  been  seized  and 
placed  in  safe  keeping,  and  it  was  reported  that  the 
King  had  a  bad  cold,  and  "  much  desireth  to  be  hence, 
saying  that  c  Methinks  I  am  in  prison.  Here  be  no 
galleries  nor  no  gardens  to  walk  in. '  "  *  The  young 
sovereign  had  also,  with  a  merry  countenance  and  a 
loud  voice,  asked  how  their  Lordships  of  the  Council 
were,  and  when  he  would  see  them,  saying  that  they 
should  be  welcome  whensoever  they  came. 

It  was  plain  that  objections  to  a  transference  of 
his  guardianship  were  not  to  be  expected  from  the 
nephew  of  the  Lord  Protector,  and  the  Duke  was 
removed  from  Windsor  to  the  Tower,  followed  by 
three  hundred  lords  and  gentlemen,  "as  if  he  had 
been  a  captive  carried  in  triumph."  It  would, 
however,  have  been  more  difficult  to  induce  the 
1  Tytler,  Ed-ward  VI.  and  Mary  vol.  i.,  p.  242. 


136  Lady  Jane  Grey 

boy  to  consent  to  the  execution  of  another  of  his 
closest  kin,  and  there  may  have  been  some  fraction 
of  truth  in  the  report  which  gained  currency  that 
the  King  had  not  been  made  acquainted  with  the 
fact  that  his  uncle  was  actually  a  prisoner  until 
he  learnt  it  from  the  Duchess.  He  then  sent  for 
the  Archbishop  and  questioned  him  on  the  subject. 

"  Godfather,"  he  is  made  to  say,  "  what  has 
become  of  my  uncle,  the  Duke  ?  "  The  explana- 
tion furnished  him  by  Cranmer — to  the  effect  that, 
had  God  not  helped  the  Lords,  the  country  would 
have  been  ruined,  and  it  was  feared  that  the  Pro- 
tector might  have  slain  the  King  himself — did  not 
appear  to  commend  itself  to  the  young  sovereign. 
The  Duke,  he  said,  had  never  done  him  any  harm, 
and  he  did  not  wish  him  to  be  killed. 

A  King's  wishes,  even  at  thirteen,  have  weight, 
and  Warwick  suddenly  discovered  that  good  should 
be  returned  for  evil  ;  and  that  since  it  was  the  King's 
desire,  and  the  first  thing  he  had  asked  of  his 
Council,  the  Duke  must  be  pardoned.1 

What  is  more  certain  is  that,  on  condition  of 
an  unqualified  acknowledgment  of  his  guilt,  ac- 
companied by  forfeiture  of  offices  and  property,  it 
was  decided  that  Somerset  should  be  set  at  liberty. 
Self-respect  or  dignity  was  not  in  fashion,  and  in 
the  eyes  of  some  the  submission  of  the  late  Lord 
Protector  assumed  the  character  of  an  "  abjectness.  " 

1  Chronicle  of  King  Henry  VIII*  p.  192. 


From  a  photo  by  W.  Mansell  &  Co.  after  a  painting  by  Holbein 

EDWARD   VI. 


An  Armistice  137 

For  the  moment  it  purchased  for  him  safety,  and 
he  was  gradually  permitted  to  regain  a  certain 
amount  of  influence  and  power.  Some  portion  of 
his  wealth  was  restored  to  him,  and  he  was  at  length 
readmitted  to  the  Council  and  to  a  limited  share 
in  the  government.  To  sanguine  eyes  all  seemed 
to  have  been  placed  on  a  satisfactory  footing ;  but 
jealousy,  distrust,  and  hatred  take  much  killing. 
The  position  of  the  man  who  was  the  King's 
nearest  of  kin  amongst  his  nobles,  and  had  lately 
been  all-powerful  in  the  State,  was  a  difficult  one. 
Warwick  was  rising,  and  meant  to  rise  ;  Somerset 
was  not  content  to  remain  fallen  and  discredited. 
What  seemed  a  peace  was  merely  an  armistice. 

Meantime  Warwick  and  his  friends  were  no 
more  successful  than  his  rival  in  maintaining  the 
national  honour,  and  the  peace  with  France  concluded 
during  the  spring  was  regarded  by  the  nation  as 
a  disgrace.  Boulogne  was  surrendered  to  its  natural 
owners,  and  in  magniloquent  terms  war  was  once 
more  stated  to  be  at  an  end  for  ever  between  the 
two  countries. 

Court  and  courtiers  troubled  themselves  little 
with  such  matters,  and  on  St.  George's  Day  a 
brilliant  company  of  Lords  of  the  Council  and 
Knights  of  the  Garter  kept  the  festival  at  Greenwich  ; 
when  a  glimpse  of  the  thirteen-year-old  King  is 
to  be  caught,  in  a  more  boyish  mood  than  usual. 

Coming   out    from    the    discourse    preached    in 


138  Lady  Jane  Grey 

honour  of  the  day,  in  high  spirits  and  in  the 
argumentative  humour  fostered  by  sermons,  the 
"godly  and  virtuous  imp  "  turned  to  his  train. 

"  My  Lords,"  he  demanded,  "  I  pray  you,  what 
saint  is  St.  George,  that  we  here  so  honour  him  ?  " 

The  sudden  attack  was  unexpected,  and,  the  Lords 
of  the  Council  being  "  astonied  "  by  it,  it  was  the 
Treasurer  who  made  reply. 

"  If  it  please  Your  Majesty,"  he  said,  <c  I  did 
never  read  in  any  history  of  St.  George,  but  only 
in  Legenda  Aurea^  where  it  is  thus  set  down,  that 
St.  George  out  with  his  sword  and  ran  the  dragon 
through  with  his  spear." 

The  King,  when  he  could  not  a  great  while 
speak  for  laughing,  at  length  said  : 

"  I  pray  you,  my  Lord,  and  what  did  he  do  with 
his  sword  the  while  ?  " 

"  That  I  cannot  tell  Your  Majesty,"  said  he. l 

Poor  little  King  !  poor  "  godly  imp  "  !  It  is  seldom 
that  his  laughter  rings  out  through  the  centuries. 
Perhaps  some  of  the  grave  Councillors  or  divines 
present  may  have  looked  askance,  considering  that 
it  was  not  with  the  weapon  of  ridicule  that  the 
patron  saint  of  England  should  be  most  fitly  at- 
tacked, but  with  the  more  legitimate  one  of  theolo- 
gical criticism.  But  to  us  it  is  satisfactory  to  find 
that  there  were  times  when  even  the  modern  Josiah 
could  not  speak  for  laughing. 

1  Foxe,Acts  and  Monuments,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  351,  352. 


CHAPTER  XI 

1549—1551 

Lady  Jane  Grey  at  home — Visit  from  Roger  Ascham — The  German 
divines — Position  of  Lady  Jane  in  the  theological  world. 

WHILST  these  events  had  been  taking  place 
Jane  Grey  had  been  once  more  relegated 
to  the  care  of  her  parents,  to  whose  house  she  had 
been  removed  upon  the  imprisonment  of  her  guardian, 
the  Admiral,  in  January,  1549.  To  the  helpless  and 
passive  plaything  of  worldly  and  political  exigencies, 
the  change  from  Seymour  Place  and  Hanworth, 
where  she  had  lived  under  Seymour's  roof,  to  the 
quiet  of  her  father's  Leicestershire  home,  must  have 
been  great. 

Nor  was  the  difference  in  the  moral  atmosphere 
less  marked.  Handsome,  unprincipled,  gay,  magni- 
ficent, one  imagines  that  the  Admiral,  in  spite  of 
the  faults  to  which  she  was  probably  not  blind,  must 
have  been  an  imposing  personage  in  the  eyes  of 
his  little  charge  ;  and  self-interest — the  interest 
of  a  man  who  did  not  guess  that  the  future  held 
nothing  for  him  but  a  grave — as  well  as  natural 
kindliness  towards  a  child  dependent  upon  him, 
will  have  led  him  to  play  the  part  of  her  "  half- 

139 


i4°  Lady  Jane  Grey 

father  "  in  a  manner  to  win  her  affection.  Was  she 
not  destined,  should  his  schemes  prosper,  to  fill  the 
place  of  Queen  Consort  ?  or,  failing  that,  might  it 
not  be  well  to  turn  into  earnest  the  "  merry  "  pos- 
sibility he  had  mentioned  to  Parry,  and,  if  Elizabeth 
was  denied  him,  to  make  her  cousin  his  wife  ?  In 
any  case,  so  long  as  she  lived  in  his  house,  Jane 
was  a  guest  of  importance,  of  royal  blood,  to  be 
treated  with  consideration,  cared  for,  and  flattered. 

But  now  the  ill-assorted  house-mates  had  parted. 
Seymour  had  taken  his  way  to  the  Tower,  as  a  stage 
towards  the  scaffold  ;  and  Jane  had  returned — gladly 
or  sorrowfully,  who  can  tell  ? — to  the  shelter  of  the 
parental  roof,  and  to  the  care  of  a  father  and  mother 
determined  upon  neutralising  by  their  conduct  any 
ill-effects  produced  by  her  two  years  of  emancipation 
from  their  control.  Once  more  she  was  an  insigni- 
ficant member  of  her  father's  family,  the  eldest  of 
his  three  children,  subjected  to  the  strictest  disci- 
pline and,  whatever  the  future  might  bring  forth, 
of  little  consequence  in  the  present. 

It  is  possible  that  Lord  Dorset's  fears,  expressed 
at  the  time  when  he  was  attempting  to  regain  pos- 
session of  his  daughter,  had  been  in  part  realised  ; 
and  that  Jane,  "  for  lack  of  a  bridle,"  had  "  taken 
too  much  the  head,"  and  conceived  an  unduly 
high  opinion  of  herself — it  would  indeed  have  been 
a  natural  outcome  of  the  position  she  held  both 
in  her  guardian's  house  and,  as  will  be  seen,  in 


Lady  Jane  and  Ascham      141 

the  estimation  of  divines.  If  this  was  the  case,  her 
mother  and  he  were  to  do  their  best  to  "  address 
her  mind  to  humility,  soberness,  and  obedience." 
The  means  taken  to  carry  out  their  intentions 
were  harsh. 

Of  the  year  following  upon  Jane's  return  to 
Bradgate  little  is  known  ;  but  in  the  summer  of 
1550,  a  picturesque  and  vivid  sketch  is  afforded 
by  Roger  Ascham  of  the  child  of  thirteen l  upon 
whom  so  many  hopes  centred  and  so  many  expecta- 
tions were  built.  In  the  description  given  in  his 
Schoolmaster*  of  the  visit  paid  by  the  great  scholar 
to  Bradgate,  light  is  thrown  alike  upon  the  system 
of  training  pursued  by  Lord  Dorset,  upon  the 
character  of  his  daughter,  and  upon  the  spirit  she 
displayed  in  conforming  to  the  manner  of  life  en- 
forced upon  her. 

Ascham,  in  his  capacity  of  tutor  to  her  cousin 
Elizabeth,  had  known  Jane  intimately  at  Court — so 
he  states  in  a  letter  to  Sturm,  another  of  the  academic 
brotherhood — and  had  already  received  learned 
letters  from  her.  Before  starting  on  a  diplomatic 
mission  to  Germany  in  the  summer  of  1550,  he  had 
visited  some  friends  in  Yorkshire,  and  on  his  way 
south  turned  aside  to  renew  his  acquaintance  with 
Lady  Jane,  and  to  pay  his  respects  to  her  father, 
who  stood  high  in  the  estimation  of  the  religious 

1  Ascham  describes  her  as  fifteen — a  manifest  error. 
J  Roger  Ascham,  The  Schoolmaster,  bk.  ii. 


Lady  Jane  Grey 

party  to  which  Ascham  belonged.  To  this  visit  we 
owe  one  of  the  most  distinct  glimpses  of  the  girl 
that  we  possess. 

By  a  fortunate  chance  he  found  "  that  most  noble 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  to  whom   I   was  exceeding   much 
beholden,"  alone.     Lord  and  Lady  Dorset,  with  all 
their  household,  were  hunting  in  the  park,  and  Jane, 
in   the  seclusion   of  her  chamber,   was   engaged  in 
studying  the  Phaedo  of  Plato,  "  with  as  much  delight 
as    some    gentlemen  would    read    a    merry   tale    in 
Boccaccio,"  when  Ascham  presented  himself  to  her. 
The  conversation   between   the   scholar   and    the 
student   places    Lady   Jane's    small   staid    figure    in 
clear  relief.     Notwithstanding   Plato's  Phaedo^   not- 
withstanding, too,  the  sun  outside,   the   sounds   of 
horns,  the  baying   of    hounds,    and   all    the    other 
allurements  she  had  proved  able  to  resist,  there  is 
something  very  human  and  unsaintly  in  her  fashion 
of  unburthening   herself  to  a  congenial   spirit   con- 
cerning the  wrongs  sustained  at  the  parental  hands. 
To   Ascham,    with    whom    she    had    been    so   well 
acquainted  under  different  circumstances,  she  opened 
her  mind  freely  when,  "  after   salutation   and   duty 
done,"  he  inquired  how  it  befell  that  she  had  left 
the  pastimes  going  forward  in  the  Park. 

"  I  wis,"  she  answered  smiling — the  smile,  surely, 
of  conscious  and  complacent  superiority — "  all  their 
sport  in  the  Park  is  but  a  shadow  to  the  pleasure 
that  I  find  in  Plato.  Alas,  good  folk,  they  never 
felt  what  true  pleasure  meant." 


After  an  engraving 


LADY  JANE  GREY. 


Lady  Jane  and  Ascham  143 

"  And  how  came  you,  Madame,"  asked  Ascham, 
"  to  this  deep  knowledge  of  pleasure,  and  what  did 
chiefly  allure  you  to  it,  seeing  not  many  women, 
but  very  few  men,  have  attained  thereto  ? " 

Jane,  nothing  loath  to  satisfy  her  guest's  curiosity, 
did  so  at  length. 

"  I  will  tell  you,"  she  answered,  "  and  tell  you  a 
truth,  which  perchance  you  will  marvel  at.  One 
of  the  greatest  benefits  that  ever  God  gave  me  is 
that  He  sent  me  so  sharp  and  severe  parents  and 
so  gentle  a  schoolmaster.  For  when  I  am  in 
presence  either  of  father  or  mother,  whether  I  speak, 
keep  silence,  sit,  stand,  or  go,  eat,  drink,  be  merry 
or  sad,  be  sewing,  playing,  dancing,  or  doing  any- 
thing else,  I  must  do  it,  as  it  were,  in  such  weight, 
measure,  and  number,  even  so  perfectly  as  God 
made  the  world,  or  else  I  am  so  sharply  taunted, 
so  cruelly  threatened,  yea  presently  sometimes  with 
pinches,  nips,  and  bobs,  and  other  ways,  which  I 
will  not  name  for  the  honour  I  bear  them,  so  with- 
out measure  disordered,  that  I  think  myself  in  hell, 
till  time  come  that  I  must  go  to  Mr.  Elmer,  who 
teacheth  me  so  gently,  so  pleasantly,  with  such  fair 
allurements  to  learning,  that  I  think  all  the  time 
nothing  whiles  I  am  with  him.  And  when  I  am 
called  away  from  him  I  fall  on  weeping,  because, 
whatever  I  do  else  but  learning  is  full  of  grief, 
trouble,  fear,  and  whole  misliking  unto  me.  And 
thus  my  book  hath  been  so  much  my  pleasure,  and 


144  Lady  Jane  Grey 

bringeth  daily  to  me  more  pleasure  and  more,  that 
in  respect  of  it  all  other  pleasures  in  very  deed  be 
but  trifles  and  troubles  to  me."  l 

Jane's  recital  of  her  wrongs,  if  correctly  reported — 
and  Ascham  says  he  remembers  the  conversation 
gladly,  both  because  it  was  so  worthy  of  memory, 
and  because  it  was  the  last  time  he  ever  saw  that 
noble  and  worthy  lady — proves  that  her  command 
of  the  vernacular  was  equal  to  her  proficiency  in 
the  dead  languages,  and  that  she  cherished  a  very 
natural  resentment  for  the  treatment  to  which  she 
was  subjected.  There  is  something  irresistibly  pro- 
vocative of  laughter  in  the  thought  of  the  two 
scholars,  old  and  young,  and  of  the  lofty  compassion 
displayed  by  the  chidden  child  towards  the  frivolous 
tastes  and  amusements  of  the  parents  to  whom  she 
doubtless  outwardly  accorded  the  exaggerated  respect 
and  reverence  demanded  by  custom.  Few  would 
grudge  the  satisfaction  derived  from  a  sympathetic 
listener  to  the  girl  whose  pleasures  were  to  be  so 
few  and  days  for  enjoying  them  so  short. 

When  Ascham  took  leave  he  had  received  a 
promise  from  Jane  to  write  to  him  in  Greek,  pro- 
vided that  he  would  challenge  her  by  a  letter  from 
Germany.  And  so  they  parted,  to  meet  no  more. 

It  may  be  that  Lady  Jane's  sense  of  the  harshness 
and  severity  of  her  treatment  at  home  was  accen- 
tuated by  the  tone  adopted  with  regard  to  her  by  many 

1  Ascham,  The  Schoolmaster,  bk.  i. 


Lady  Jane  and  the  Divines  H5 

of  the  leading  Protestant  divines.  To  these  men 
— men  to  whom  Mary  was  Jezebel,  Gardiner  that 
lying  and  subtle  Cerberus,1  and  by  whom  persons 
holding  theological  views  at  variance  with  their  own 
were  freely  and  unreservedly  handed  over  to  the 
devil — Jane  was  not  only  wise,  learned,  and  saintly 
beyond  her  years,  but  to  her  they  turned  their  eyes, 
hoping  for  a  future  when,  at  the  King's  side,  she 
might  prove  the  efficient  protectress  and  patroness 
of  the  reformed  Church.  Her  name  was  a  household 
word  amongst  them,  and  whilst  it  can  have  been 
scarcely  possible  that  she  was  indifferent  to  the 
incense  offered  by  those  to  whom  she  had  been 
instructed  to  look  up,  it  may  have  rendered  the 
system  of  repression  adopted  by  her  parents  more 
unendurable  than  might  otherwise  have  been  the  case. 
Bradgate  was  a  centre  of  strong  and  militant 
Protestantism.  In  conjunction  with  Warwick,  the 
Marquis  of  Dorset  was  regarded  by  the  German 
school  of  theologians  as  one  of  the  "  two  most 
shining  lights  of  the  Church  ;  "  2  and  the  many  letters 
sent  from  England  to  Henry  Bullinger  at  Zurich — 
some  of  them  dated  from  Bradgate  itself — abound 
in  allusions  to  the  family,  and  throw  a  useful 
light  upon  this  part  of  Lady  Jane's  life.  In  these 
epistles  her  father's  name  recurs  again  and  again, 
always  in  terms  of  extravagant  eulogy,  and  as  that 
of  a  munificent  patron  of  needy  divines.  Thus  he 

1  Zurich  Letters,  Parker  Society.  *  Ibid. 

10 


146  Lady  Jane  Grey 

had  bestowed  a  pension  at  first  sight  upon  Ulmis, 
a    young  disciple  of   Bullinger's,   doubling  it   some 
months  later  ;    and  his  grateful  protdgJ,  striving  to 
make    what   return  is  possible,  impresses  upon  the 
foreign  master  the  advisability  of  dedicating  one  of 
his    works    to    the    generous    Marquis,     anxiously 
sending  him,  when    his  request   has    been  granted, 
the  full  title  to  be  used  in  so  doing.     "  He  told  me, 
indeed,"  he  adds,  "  that  he  had  the  title  of  Prince, 
but  that  he  would  not  wish  to  be  so  styled  by  you, 
so  you    must  judge    for  yourself  whether  to  keep 
it    back  or  not."  l     Bullinger    is  likewise  urged  to 
present  a  copy  of  one  of  his  books  to  the  Marquis's 
daughter,  "  and,  take  my  word  for  it,  you  will  never 
repent    having    done    so."       A    most    learned    and 
courteous  letter  would  thereby  be  elicited  from  her. 
She  had  already  translated  into  Greek  a  good  part 
of  Bullinger's   treatise  on  marriage,  put  by  Ulmis 
himself  into  Latin,  and  had  given  it  to  her  father 
as  a  New  Year's  gift.2     In  May,  1551,  another  letter 
records    that    two    days   had    been   very   agreeably 
passed  at  Bradgate  with  Jane,  my  Lord's  daughter, 
and    those  excellent  and  holy  persons  Aylmer,  her 
tutor,  and  Haddon,  chaplain  to  the  Marquis.     "  For 
my  own  part,  I  do  not  think  there  ever  lived  any 
one    more    deserving   of  respect   than    this    young 
lady,  if  you    regard  her  family  ;   more  learned,    if 

1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  it,  Parker  Society,  p.  399. 
1  Ibid.,  p.  427. 


Lady  Jane  and  the  Divines  14? 

you  consider  her  age ;  or  more  happy,  if  you 
consider  both.  A  report  has  prevailed,  and  has 
begun  to  be  talked  of  by  persons  of  consequence, 
that  this  most  noble  virgin  is  to  be  betrothed  and 
given  in  marriage  to  the  King's  majesty.  Oh,  if 
that  event  should  take  place,  how  happy  would  be 
the  union,  and  how  beneficial  to  the  church  !  " l 

A  letter  despatched  by  Ulmis  on  the  same  day  to 
another  of  his  brethren  in  the  faith,  Conrad  Pellican, 
craves  his  advice  on  behalf  of  Lady  Jane  with  regard 
to  the  best  means  of  acquiring  Hebrew,  a  language 
she  was  anxious  to  study.  She  had  written  to 
consult  Bullinger  on  the  subject,  but  Bullinger  was 
a  busy  man,  and  all  the  world  knew  how  perfect 
was  Pellican's  acquaintance  with  the  subject. 
Pellican  may  argue  that  he  might  seem  lacking 
in  modesty  should  he  address  a  young  lady,  the 
daughter  of  a  nobleman,  unknown  to  him  person- 
ally. But  he  is  besought  by  Ulmis  to  entertain  no 
fears  of  the  kind,  and  his  correspondent  will  bear  all 
the  blame  if  he  ever  repents  of  the  deed,  or  if 
Lady  Jane  does  not  most  willingly  acknowledge  his 
courtesy.  "  In  truth,"  he  adds,  "  I  do  not  think 
that  amongst  the  English  nobility  for  many  ages 
past  there  has  arisen  a  single  individual  who,  to 
the  highest  excellences  of  talent  and  judgment,  has 
united  so  much  diligence  and  assiduity  in  the 
cultivation  of  every  liberal  pursuit.  ...  It  is 
1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  ii.,  p.  430. 


148  Lady  Jane  Grey 

incredible  how  far  she  has  advanced  already,  and 
to  what  perfection  she  will  advance  in  a  few  years  ; 
for  I  well  know  that  she  will  complete  what  she 
has  begun,  unless  perhaps  she  be  diverted  from 
her  pursuits  by  some  calamity  of  the  times.  .  .  . 
If  you  write  a  letter  to  her,  take  care,  I  pray  you, 
that  it  be  first  delivered  to  me."  l 

The  letter  is  dated  from  the  house  of  the  daughter 
of  the  Marquis.  Her  mother,  it  is  true,  seems 
to  have  been  at  home,  though  Dorset  was  in 
Scotland  ;  but  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  grand- 
daughter of  Henry  VII.,  through  whom  Jane's  royal 
blood  was  transmitted  to  her,  appears  to  have  been 
by  common  consent  tacitly  passed  over,  as  a  person 
of  no  consequence  in  comparison  with  her  daughter.2 

Quite  a  budget  of  letters  were  entrusted  to  the 
courier  who  left  Bradgate  on  May  29,  and  was  the 
bearer  of  the  missives  addressed  by  Ulmis  to  his 
master  and  his  friend.  Both  John  Aylmer,  tutor 
to  Lord  Dorset's  children  and  afterwards  Bishop  of 
London,  and  Haddon,  the  Marquis's  chaplain,  had 
taken  the  opportunity  of  writing  to  Bullinger,  doubt- 
less stimulated  to  the  effort  by  his  young  disciple. 

The    preceptor    who   compared   so  favourably  in 

1  Zurich  Letters,  p.  433. 

*  There  is  little  mention  of  Lady  Jane's  mother  in  contemporary 
records.  But  the  nature  of  the  woman,  and  her  heritage  of  Tudor 
blood,  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  fact  that  not  a  fortnight  after 
her  husband  had  been  executed,  and  about  a  month  after  Lady 
Jane's  death  she  bestowed  herself  in  marriage  upon  her 
equerry. 


John  Aylmer  and  Haddon  149 

Lady  Jane's  eyes  with  her  parents,  was  a  young 
Norfolk  man,  of  about  twenty-nine,  and  singularly 
well  learned  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  tongues.1  On 
James  Haddon,  Bishop  Hooper,  writing  from  prison 
when,  three  years  later,  the  friends  of  the  Reforma- 
tion had  fallen  on  evil  days,  pronounced  a  eulogy  in 
a  letter  to  Bullinger.  Master  James  Haddon,  he 
said,  was  not  only  a  friend  and  very  dear  brother  in 
Christ,  but  one  he  had  always  esteemed  on  account  of 
his  singular  erudition  and  virtue.  "  I  do  not  think," 
he  added,  "  that  I  have  ever  been  acquainted  with 
any  one  in  England  who  is  endued  either  with  more 
sincere  piety  towards  God  or  more  removed  from 
all  desire  of  those  perishing  objects  desired  by  foolish 
mortals."  From  Bishop  Hooper  the  panegyric  is 
evidence  that  Haddon  belonged  to  the  extreme  party 
in  theological  matters,  in  which  Aylmer  was  probably 
in  full  accord  with  him.  On  this  particular  day 
in  May  both  these  devoted  and  conscientious  men 
were  sending  letters  to  the  great  director  of  souls  in 
Zurich,  that  of  Haddon  being  written  to  a  man 
to  whom  he  was  personally  unknown,  and  with  the 
sole  object  of  opening  a  correspondence  and  offering 
a  tribute  of  respect. 

Aylmer's  case  was  a  different  one.  Though  also 
a  stranger,  he  wrote  at  some  length,  chiefly  in  the 
character  of  the  preceptor  entrusted  with  Lady 

1  Becon's  Jewel  of  Joy,  Parker  Society. 
*  Zurich  Letters,  p.  103. 


150  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Jane's  education,  making  due  acknowledgments 
for  the  letters  and  advice  which  had  been  of  so 
much  use  in  keeping  his  patron  and  his  patron's 
family  in  the  right  path,  and  begging  Bullinger  to 
continue  these  good  offices  towards  the  pupil, 
just  fourteen,  concerning  whom  it  is  strange  to  find 
the  young  man  entertaining  certain  fears  and  mis- 
givings. 

"  At  that  age,"  he  observes,  "  as  the  comic  poet 
tells  us,  all  people  are  inclined  to  follow  their  own 
ways,  and,  by  the  attractiveness  of  the  objects  and 
the  corruptions  of  nature,  are  more  easily  carried 
headlong  in  pleasure  .  .  .  than  induced  to  follow 
those  studies  that  are  attended  with  the  praise  of 
virtue."  The  time  teemed  with  many  disorders  ; 
discreet  physicians  must  therefore  be  sought,  and 
to  tender  minds  there  should  not  be  wanting  the 
counsel  of  the  aged  nor  the  authority  of  grave  and 
influential  men.  Aylmer  accordingly  entreats  that 
Bullinger  will  minister,  by  letter  and  advice,  to  the 
improvement  of  his  charge. 

An  epistle  from  Jane,  dated  July  1551,  shows 
that  the  German  theologian  responded  at  once  to 
the  appeal,  since  in  it  she  acknowledges  the  receipt 
of  a  most  eloquent  and  weighty  letter,  and  men- 
tioning the  loss  she  had  sustained  in  the  death  of 
Bucer,  who  appears  to  have  taken  his  part  in  her 
theological  training,  congratulates  herself  upon  the 
possession  of  a  friend  so  learned  as  Bullinger,  so 


Lady  Jane  as  a  Letter  Writer          151 

pious  a  divine,  and  so  intrepid  a  champion  of  true 
religion.  Bereaved  of  the  "  pious  Bucer  .  .  .  who 
unweariedly  did  not  cease,  day  and  night,  and  to  the 
utmost  of  his  ability,  to  supply  me  with  all  necessary 
instructions  and  directions  for  my  conduct  in  life, 
and  who  by  his  excellent  advice  promoted  and  en- 
couraged my  progress  and  advancement  in  all  virtue, 
godliness,  and  learning,"  she  proceeds  to  beg 
Bullinger  to  fill  the  vacant  place,  and  to  spur  her  on 
if  she  should  loiter  and  be  disposed  to  delay.  By 
this  means  she  will  enjoy  the  same  advantages 
granted  to  those  women  to  whom  St.  Jerome  im- 
parted instruction,  or  to  the  elect  lady  to  whom  the 
epistle  of  St.  John  was  addressed,  or  to  the  mother 
of  Severus,  taught  by  Origen.  As  Bullinger  could 
be  deemed  inferior  to  none  of  these  teachers,  she 
entreats  him  to  manifest  a  like  kindness.1  It  is 
plain  that  Lady  Jane,  in  addressing  this  "  brightest 
ornament  and  support  of  the  whole  Church,"  is 
determined  not  to  be  outdone  in  the  art  of  pious 
flattery  ;  and  in  her  correspondence  with  men  who 
both  as  scholars  and  divines  held  a  foremost  place 
in  the  estimation  of  those  by  whom  she  was  sur- 
rounded, she  indemnified  herself  for  the  mortifica- 
tions inflicted  upon  her  at  home. 

The  reformers,  for  their  part,  were  keeping  an 
anxious  watch  upon  the  course  of  events  in  England  ; 
and  to  strengthen  and  maintain  their  influence  over 

1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  5. 


152  Lady  Jane  Grey 

one  who  might  have  a  prominent  part  to  play 
in  future  years  was  of  the  first  importance.  A  letter 
from  Ascham,  who  was  still  abroad,  dated  some 
months  later,  supplies  yet  another  example  of  the 
incense  offered  to  the  child  of  fourteen,  and  of 
fulsome  adulation  by  which  an  older  head  might 
have  been  turned.  Nothing,  he  told  her,  in 
his  travels,  had  raised  in  him  greater  admiration 
than  had  been  caused  when,  on  his  visit  to 
Bradgate,  he  had  found  one  so  young  and  lovely — so 
divine  a  maid — engaged  in  the  study  of  Plato  whilst 
friends  and  relations  were  enjoying  field  sports.  Let 
her  proceed  thus,  to  the  honour  of  her  country,  the 
delight  of  her  parents,  her  own  glory,  the  praise  of 
her  preceptor,  the  comfort  of  her  relations  and 
acquaintances,  and  the  admiration  of  all.  O  happy 
Aylmer,  to  have  a  like  scholar  ! 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  quotations  which 
indicate  the  place  accorded  to  Lord  Dorset's 
daughter  in  the  estimation  of  the  leaders  of  the 
extreme  party  of  Protestantism,  in  whose  eyes 
Cranmer  was  regarded  as  a  possible  trimmer. 
Allowing  to  him  "  right  views,"  Hooper,  in  writing 
to  Bullinger,  adds  :  "we  desire  nothing  more  for 
him  than  a  firm  and  manly  spirit.1  "  Contrary  to 
general  expectation,"  Traheron  writes,  the  Archbishop 
had  most  openly,  firmly,  and  learnedly  maintained 
the  opinion  of  the  German  divine  upon  the 
1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  72. 


From  a  photo  by  \V.  Mnnsell  &  Co.  after  a  painting  by  G.  l-llccius  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 
ARCHBISHOP   CRANMER. 


Germany  and  Cranmer  153 

Eucharist ;  and  Ulmis,  alluding  to  him  in  terms  of 
praise,  repeats  that  he  had  unexpectedly  given  a 
correct  judgment  on  this  point.  Even  the  youngest 
of  the  German  theologians  felt  himself  competent 
to  weigh  in  the  balances  the  head  of  Protestant 
England. 

Protestant  England  was  itself  keeping  a  wary  eye 
upon  its  Primate.  "  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury," 
wrote  Hooper  to  Bullinger,  "  to  tell  the  truth, 
neither  took  much  note  of  your  letter  nor  of  your 
learned  present.  But  now,  as  I  hope,  Master 
Bullinger  and  Canterbury  entertain  the  same 
opinion."  "  The  people  .  .  .  that  many-headed 
monster,"  he  wrote  again,  "is  still  wincing,  partly 
through  ignorance,  and  partly  persuaded  by  the  in- 
veiglements of  the  Bishops  and  the  malice  and 
impiety  of  the  mass-priests."  l 

1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  i.,  pp.  76,  77. 


CHAPTER  XII 
1551-1552 

An  anxious  tutor — Somerset's  final  fall — The  charges  against  him— 
His  guilt  or  innocence — His  trial  and  condemnation — The  King's 
indifference — Christmas  at  Greenwich — The  Duke's  execution. 

A  YLMER  had  been  so  far  encouraged  by  the 
y\  success  of  his  appeal  to  Henry  Bullinger 
on  behalf  of  his  pupil  that  he  is  found,  some  seven 
months  later,  calling  the  Swiss  churchman  again  into 
council.  He  was  possibly  over-anxious,  but  the  tone 
of  his  communication  makes  it  clear  that  Lady  Jane 
Grey  had  been  once  more  causing  her  tutor  disquiet- 
Responding,  in  the  first  place,  to  Bullinger's  con- 
gratulations upon  his  privilege  in  acting  as  teacher 
to  so  excellent  a  scholar,  and  in  a  family  so  well 
disposed  to  learning  and  religion,  he  proceeds  to 
request  that  his  correspondent  will,  in  his  next 
letter,  instruct  Lady  Jane  as  to  the  proper  degree 
of  embellishment  and  adornment  of  the  person 
becoming  in  young  women  professing  godliness. 
The  tutor  is  plainly  uneasy  on  this  subject,  and  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  Jane  had  been  developing  an  undue 
love  of  dress.  Yet  the  example  of  the  Princess 
Elizabeth  might  be  fitly  adduced,  observes  Aylmer, 

154 


John  Aylmer  Uneasy  155 

furnishing  the  monitor  with  arguments  of  which  he 
might,  if  he  pleased,  make  use.  She  at  least  went 
clad  in  every  respect  as  became  a  young  maiden,  and 
yet  no  one  was  induced  by  the  example  of  "  a  lady 
in  so  much  gospel  light  to  lay  aside,  much  less  look 
down  upon,  gold,  jewels,  and  braidings  of  the  hair." 
Preachers  might  declaim,  but  no  one  amended  her 
life.  Moreover,  and  as  a  less  important  matter, 
Aylmer  desires  Bullinger  to  prescribe  the  amount  of 
time  to  be  devoted  to  music.  If  he  would  handle 
these  points  at  some  length  there  would  probably  be 
some  accession  to  the  ranks  of  virtue. 

One  would  imagine  that  it  argued  ignorance  of 
human  nature  on  the  part  of  Lady  Jane's  instructor 
to  believe  that  the  admonitions  of  an  old  man  at 
a  distance  would  have  more  effect  than  those  of  a 
young  man  close  at  hand  ;  nor  does  it  appear 
whether  or  not  Bullinger  sent  the  advice  for  which 
Aylmer  asked.  But  that  his  pupil's  incipient  leaning 
towards  worldly  vanities  was  successfully  checked 
would  appear  from  her  reply,  reported  by  himself, 
when  a  costly  dress  had  been  presented  to  her  by  her 
cousin  Mary.  "  It  were  a  shame,"  she  is  said  to  have 
answered,  in  rejecting  the  gift,  "  to  follow  my  Lady 
Mary,  who  leaveth  God's  Word,  and  leave  my  Lady 
Elizabeth,  who  followeth  God's  Word." 

It  might  have  been  well  for  Jane  had  she  practised 
greater  courtesy  towards  a  cousin  at  this  time  out  of 
favour  at  Court ;  but  no  considerations  of  policy  or 


156  Lady  Jane  Grey 

of  good  breeding  could  be  expected  to  influence  a 
zealot  of  fifteen,  and  Mary,  more  than  double  her 
age,  may  well  have  listened  with  a  smile. 

When  Aylmer's  letter  was  written,  the  Grey 
family  had  left  Bradgate  and  were  in  London.  The 
Marquis  had,  some  two  months  earlier,  been  ad- 
vanced to  the  rank  of  Duke  of  Suffolk,  upon  the 
title  becoming  extinct  through  the  death  of  his 
wife's  two  half-brothers,  and  the  tutor  may  have 
had  just  cause  for  disquietude  lest  the  world  should 
make  good  its  claims  upon  the  little  soul  he  was 
so  carefully  tending.  In  November  1551  Mary 
of  Lorraine,  Queen-Dowager  of  Scotland,  had 
applied  for  leave  to  pass  through  England  on  her 
way  north.  It  had  not  only  been  granted,  but  she 
had  been  accorded  a  magnificent  reception,  Lady 
Jane,  with  her  mother,  taking  part  in  the  cere- 
mony when  the  royal  guest  visited  the  King  at 
Whitehall.  Two  days  later  she  was  amongst 
the  ladies  assembled  to  do  the  Queen  honour  at 
her  departure  for  Scotland.  It  may  be  that  this 
participation  in  the  pomp  and  splendour  of  court 
life  had  produced  a  tendency  in  John  Aylmer's 
charge  to  bestow  overmuch  attention  upon  worldly 
matters,  nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  his  heart  was 
sore  at  the  contrast  she  had  presented  to  Elizabeth, 
"  whose  plainness  of  dress,"  he  says,  still  commending 
the  Princess,  "  was  especially  noticed  on  the  occasion 
of  the  visit  of  the  Queen-Dowager  of  Scotland." 


Somerset's  Fall  157 

Perhaps,  too,  the  master  looked  back  with  regret  to 
the  quiet  days  of  uninterrupted  study.  The  Dorset 
household,  when  not  in  London  itself,  were  now  to 
be  chiefly  resident  at  Sheen,  within  reach  of  the 
Court.  Jane,  too,  was  growing  up  ;  Aylmer  was 
young ;  and  to  the  cc  gentle  schoolmaster "  the 
training  of  Lord  Dorset's  eldest  daughter  may  have 
had  an  interest  not  wholly  confined  to  scholarship 
or  to  theology.  It  is  nevertheless  impossible  to  put 
back  the  clock,  and  the  days  when  his  pupil  could 
be  expected  to  devote  herself  exclusively  to  her 
studies  were  irrevocably  past. 

Meantime  the  hollow  treaty  of  amity  between  the 
two  great  competitors  for  supremacy  in  the  realm 
was  to  end.  In  the  spring  of  1551  Somerset  and 
Warwick  were  on  terms  of  outward  cordiality,  and 
a  marriage  between  the  Duke's  daughter  and  the 
eldest  son  of  his  rival,  which  took  place  with  much 
magnificence  in  the  presence  of  the  King,  might  have 
been  expected  to  cement  their  friendship.  But 
by  October  "carry-tales  and  flatterers,"  says  one 
chronicler,  had  rendered  harmony — even  the  sem- 
blance of  harmony — impossible  ;  or,  as  was  more 
probable,  Warwick,  suspicious  of  the  intention  on  the 
part  of  the  Duke  of  regaining  the  direction  of 
affairs,  had  determined  to  free  himself  once  for  all 
from  the  rivalry  of  the  King's  uncle.  Somerset  had 
again  been  lodged  in  the  Tower,  to  leave  it,  this 
time,  only  for  the  scaffold. 


158  Lady  Jane  Grey 

On  the  question  of  his  innocence  or  guilt  there  has 
been  much  discussion  amongst  historians,  nor  is  it 
possible  to  enter  at  length  into  the  question. 
The  crimes  of  which  he  stood  accused  were  of  the 
blackest  dye.  "  The  good  Duke,"  as  the  people  still 
loved  to  call  him,  was  charged  with  plotting  to  gain 
possession  of  the  King's  person,  of  contriving  the 
murder  of  Warwick,  now  to  be  created  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  of  Northampton  and  Herbert,  and 
was  to  be  tried  for  treason  and  felony. 

Many  and  various  are  the  views  taken  as  to  the 
guilt  of  the  late  Protector.  Mr.  Tytler,  most  con- 
scientious of  historians,  after  a  careful  comparison  of 
contemporary  evidence,  has  decided  in  his  favour. 
Others  have  come  to  a  different  conclusion.  The 
balance  of  opinion  appears  to  be  on  his  side.  His 
bearing  throughout  the  previous  summer  had  been 
that  of  an  innocent  man,  who  had  nothing  to  fear 
from  justice.  But  justice  was  hard  to  come  by. 
His  enemy  was  strong  and  relentless — "  a  competent 
lawyer,  known  soldier,  able  statesman "- — and  in 
each  of  these  capacities  he  was  seeking  to  bring  a 
dangerous  competitor  to  ruin.  It  was,  says  Fuller, 
almost  like  a  struggle  between  a  naked  and  an  armed 
man.1  Yet,  open-hearted  and  free  from  distrust  as 
he  is  described,  Somerset  must  have  been  aware 
of  some  part  of  his  danger.  His  friends  amongst 
the  upper  classes  had  ever  been  few  and  cold. 
1  Church  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  338. 


Somerset's  Fall  159 

The  reformers,  for  whom  he  had  done  so  much, 
had  begun  to  indulge  doubts  of  his  zeal.  Become 
possibly  weary  of  persecution,  he  had  tried  to 
make  a  way  for  Gardiner  to  leave  the  prison  in 
which  he  was  languishing,  and,  alone  of  the  Council, 
had  been  in  favour  of  permitting  to  Mary  the 
exercise  of  her  religion.  These  facts  were  sufficient, 
in  the  eyes  of  many,  to  justify  the  assertion  made  by 
Burgoyne  to  Calvin  that  he  had  grown  lukewarm, 
and  had  scarcely  anything  less  at  heart  than  religion. 

He  was  naturally  the  last  to  hear  of  the  intrigues 
against  him,  and  of  the  accusations  brought  in  his 
absence  from  the  Council-chamber.  An  attempt, 
it  is  true,  was  made  to  warn  him  by  Lord  Chancellor 
Rich,  by  means  of  a  letter  containing  an  account  of 
the  proceedings  which  had  taken  place  ;  but,  carelessly 
addressed  only  "  To  the  Duke,"  it  was  delivered,  by 
a  blunder  of  the  Chancellor's  servant,  to  Norfolk, 
Somerset's  enemy.  Surprised  at  the  speedy  return 
of  his  messenger,  Rich  inquired  where  he  had  found 
"  the  Duke." 

"  In  the  Charter  House,"  was  the  reply,  "  on 
the  same  token  that  he  read  it  at  the  window  and 
smiled  thereat." 

"But  the  Lord  Rich,"  adds  Fuller,  in  telling 
the  story,  "  smiled  not  "  ;  resigning  his  post  on  the 
following  day,  on  the  plea  of  old  age  and  a  desire 
to  gain  leisure  to  attend  to  his  devotions,  and 
thereby  escaping  the  dismissal  which  would  have 


160  Lady  Jane  Grey 

resulted   from   a   betrayal   of   the    secrets    of   the 
Council.1 

By  October  14  the  Duke  was  cognisant  to  some 
extent  of  the  mischief  that  was  a-foot,  for  it  is  stated 
in  the  King's  journal  that  he  sent  for  the  Secretary 
Cecil  "  to  tell  him  that  he  suspected  some  ill.  Mr. 
Cecil  answered  that,  if  he  were  not  guilty,  he  might 
be  of  good  courage  ;  if  he  were,  he  had  nothing 
to  say  but  to  lament  him."  It  was  not  an  en- 
couraging reply  to  an  appeal  for  sympathy  and 
support,  and  must  have  been  an  earnest  of  the 
attitude  likely  to  be  adopted  towards  the  Duke 
by  the  rest  of  his  colleagues.  Two  days  later 
Edward's  journal  notes  his  apprehension. 

The  issue  of  the  struggle  was  nevertheless  un- 
certain. In  spite  of  his  unpopularity  amongst  the 
nobles,  and  though,  to  judge  by  the  entries  in  the 
royal  diary,  the  course  of  events  was  followed  by  his 
nephew  with  cold  indifference,  Somerset  was  not  with- 
out his  partisans.  Constant  to  their  old  affection, 
the  attack  upon  him  was  watched  by  the  common 
people  with  breathless  interest,  accentuated  by  the 
detestation  universally  felt  for  the  man  who  had 
planned  his  destruction.  Hatred  for  Northumber- 
land joined  hands  with  love  for  Somerset  to  range 
them  on  his  side.  The  political  atmosphere  was 
charged  with  excitement.  Could  it  be  true  that  the 
"  good  Duke  "  had  designed  the  murder  of  his  rival, 
1  Church  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  340. 


The  Duke's  Sentence  161 

who,  whatever  might  be  thought  of  him  in  other 
respects,  was  one  of  the  chief  props  of  Protestan- 
tism ?  Had  the  King,  as  some  alleged,  been  in 
danger  ?  The  trial  would  show  ;  and  when  it 
became  known  that  the  prisoner  had  been  acquitted 
of  treason,  and  the  axe  was  therefore,  according  to 
custom,  carried  out  of  court,  his  cause  was  considered 
to  be  won  ;  a  cry  arose  that  the  innocence  of  the 
popular  favourite  had  been  established,  and  the 
applause  of  the  crowd  testified  to  their  rejoicing. 
It  had  been  premature.  Acquitted  of  the  principal 
offence  with  which  he  stood  charged,  he  was  found 
guilty  of  felony,  and  sentenced  to  death. 

The  verdict  was  received  with  ominous  murmurs, 
and,  in  a  letter  to  Bullinger,  Ulmis  states  that, 
observing  the  grave  and  sorrowful  aspect  of  the 
audience,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland  was  wary 
enough  take  his  cue  from  it,  and  to  attempt  to 
propitiate  in  his  own  favour  the  discontented  crowd. 

"O  Duke  of  Somerset,"  he  exclaimed  from  his 
seat,  u  you  see  yourself  brought  into  the  utmost 
danger,  and  that  nothing  but  death  awaits  you.  I 
have  once  before  delivered  you  from  a  similar 
hazard  of  your  life  ;  and  I  will  not  now  desist  from 
serving  you,  how  little  soever  you  may  expect  it." 
Let  Somerset  appeal  to  the  royal  clemency,  and 
Northumberland,  forgiving  him  his  offences,  would 
do  all  in  his  power  to  save  him.1 

1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  ii.,  p.  441. 

II 


1 62  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Northumberland's  tardy  magnanimity  fails  to  carry 
conviction.  But,  besides  his  victim's  popularity  in 
the  country,  it  was  reported  that  the  "  King  took 
it  not  in  good  part,"  and  it  was  thought  well  to 
delay  the  execution,  by  which  means  his  supplanter 
might  gain  credit  for  exercising  his  generosity  by 
an  attempt  to  avert  his  doom.  Christmas  was  at 
hand,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  Duke  should 
remain  in  prison,  under  sentence  of  death,  whilst 
the  feast  was  celebrated  at  Court. 

In  spite  of  the  assertion  that  the  young  King  had 
not  been  unaffected  by  a  tragedy  that  should  have 
touched  him  closely,  there  is  nothing  in  his  own 
words  to  indicate  any  other  attitude  than  that  of 
the  indifferent  spectator — an  attitude  recalling  un- 
pleasantly the  callousness  shown  by  his  father  as 
the  women  he  had  loved  and  the  statesmen  he  had 
trusted  and  employed  were  successively  sent  to  the 
block.  Though,  in  justice  to  Edward,  it  should 
be  remembered  that  he  had  never  loved  his  uncle, 
there  is  something  revolting  in  his  casual  mention 
of  the  measures  adopted  against  him. 

"  Little  has  been  done  since  you  went,"  he  wrote 
to  Barnaby  Fitzpatrick,  the  comrade  of  his  childish 
days,  now  become  his  favourite,  "  but  the  Duke 
of  Somerset's  arraignment  for  felonious  treason  and 
the  muster  of  the  newly  erected  gendarmery  ;  "x  and 
the  journal  wherein  he  traces  the  progress  of  the 
1  Fuller's  Church  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  341. 


Christmas  at  Greenwich  163 

trial,  varying  the  narrative  by  the  introduction  of 
other  topics,  such  as  the  visit  of  the  Queen-Dowager 
of  Scotland  and  the  festivities  in  her  honour,  conveys 
a  similar  impression  of  coldness.  "  And  so  he  was 
adjudged  to  be  hanged,"  he  records  in  conclusion, 
noting,  with  no  expression  of  regret,  the  result  of 
the  proceedings. 

"  It  were  well  that  he  should  die,"  Edward  had 
told  the  Duke's  brother  in  those  earlier  childish 
days  when  incited  by  the  Admiral  to  rebel  against 
the  strictness  of  the  discipline  enforced  by  the 
Protector.  But,  under  the  mask  of  indifference, 
it  may  be  that  misgivings  awoke  and  made  them- 
selves apparent  to  those  who,  watching  him  closely, 
feared  that  ties  of  blood  might  vindicate  their 
strength,  and  that  at  their  bidding,  or  through  com- 
passion, he  might  interpose  to  avert  the  fate  of  one 
of  the  only  near  relations  who  remained  to  him. 
It  appears  to  have  been  determined  that  the  King's 
mind  must  be  diverted  from  the  subject  ;  and  whilst 
the  prisoner  was  awaiting  in  the  Tower  the  execution 
of  his  sentence,  special  merry-makings  were  arranged 
by  the  men  who  had  the  direction  of  affairs  at  Green 
wich,  where  the  court  was  to  keep  Christmas.  Thus 
it  was  hoped  to  "  remove  the  fond  talk  out  of  men's 
mouths,"  and  to  recreate  and  refresh  the  troubled 
spirits  of  the  young  sovereign.  A  Lord  of  Misrule 
was  accordingly  appointed,  who,  dubbed  the  Master 
of  the  King's  Pastimes,  took  order  for  the  general 


164  Lady  Jane  Grey 

amusement,  though  conducting  himself  more  dis- 
creetly than  had  been  the  wont  of  his  predecessors, 
and  the  festival  was  gaily  observed.  By  these  means, 
says  Holinshed,  the  minds  and  ears  of  murmurers 
were  well  appeased,  till  it  was  thought  well  to 
proceed  to  the  business  of  executing  judgment  upon 
the  Duke. 

In  whatever  light  the  ghastly  contrast  between  the 
uncle  awaiting  a  bloody  death  in  the  Tower  and  the 
noisy  merry-making  intended  to  drown  the  sound 
of  the  passing-bell  in  the  nephew's  ears  may  strike 
students  of  a  later  day,  it  is  likely  that  there  was 
nothing  in  it  to  affect  painfully  those  who  joined 
in  the  proceedings.  Life  was  little  considered.  Men 
were  daily  accustomed  to  witness  violent  reverses 
of  fortune.  The  Duke  had  aimed  over-high  ;  he 
was  a  danger  to  rivals  whose  turn  it  was  to  rise  ; 
he  must  make  way  for  others.  He  had  moreover 
been  too  deeply  injured  to  forgive  ;  and,  to  make 
all  safe,  he  must  die.  The  reign  of  the  Seymours 
was  at  an  end  ;  that  of  Northumberland  was 
beginning.  Two  more  years  and  their  supplanter, 
with  Suffolk  and  his  other  adherents,  would  in 
their  turn  have  paid  the  penalty  of  a  great  ambition, 
and,  "  with  the  sons  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset  stand- 
ing by,"  would  have  followed  the  Lord  Protector 
to  the  grave. 

There  was  none  to  prophesy  their  fate.  Had  it 
been  otherwise,  it  is  not  probable  that  a  warning 


Somerset's  Death  165 

would  have  turned  them  from  their  purpose.  For 
they  were  reckless  gamblers,  and  to  foretell  ruin 
to  a  man  who  is  staking  his  all  upon  a  throw  of 
the  dice  is  to  speak  to  deaf  ears. 

So  the  merry  Christmas  passed,  Jane — third  in 
succession  to  the  throne — occupying  a  prominent 
position  at  Court.  And  Aylmer,  fearful  lest  the  fruits 
of  his  care  should  be  squandered,  looked  on  help- 
lessly, and  besought  Bullinger,  on  that  23rd  of 
December,  to  set  a  limit,  for  the  benefit  of  a  pupil 
in  danger,  to  the  attention  lawfully  to  be  bestowed 
on  the  world  and  its  vanities  ;  a  letter  from  Haddon, 
the  Duke's  chaplain,  following  fast  and  betraying 
his  participation  in  the  anxieties  of  his  colleague  by 
an  entreaty  that,  from  afar,  the  eminent  divine  would 
continue  to  exercise  a  beneficent  influence  upon  his 
master's  daughter. 

Meantime  the  day  had  arrived  when  it  was 
considered  safe  to  carry  matters  against  the  King's 
uncle  to  extremities,  and  on  January  23,  six  weeks 
after  his  trial,  the  Duke  of  Somerset  was  taken  to 
Tower  Hill,  to  suffer  death  in  the  presence  of  a 
vast  crowd  there  assembled. 

Till  the  last  moment  the  throng  had  persisted  in 
hoping  against  hope  that  the  life  of  the  man  they 
loved  might  even  now,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  be 
spared  ;  and  at  one  moment  it  seemed  that  they 
were  not  to  be  disappointed.  The  Duke  had 
taken  his  place  upon  the  scaffold,  and  had  begun 


1 66  Lady  Jane  Grey 

his  speech,  when  an  interruption  occurred,  oc- 
casioned, as  it  afterwards  proved,  by  an  accidental 
collision  between  the  mass  of  spectators  and  a  body 
of  troops  who  had  received  orders  to  be  present 
at  the  execution,  and,  finding  themselves  late,  had 
ridden  hard  and  fast  to  make  up  for  lost  time. 
This  was  the  simple  explanation  of  the  occurrence  ; 
but,  to  the  excited  mob  gathered  together,  every 
nerve  strained  and  full  of  pity  and  fear  and  horror, 
the  sound  of  the  thundering  hoofs  seemed  some- 
thing supernatural  and  terrible.  Was  it  a  sign  of 
divine  interposition  ? 

"  Suddenly,"  recounts  an  eye-witness,  "  suddenly 
came  a  wondrous  fear  upon  the  people  ...  by  a 
great  sound  which  appeared  unto  many  above  in 
the  element  as  it  had  been  the  sound  of  gunpowder 
set  on  fire  in  a  close  house  bursting  out,  and  by 
another  sound  upon  the  ground  as  it  had  been  the 
sight  of  a  great  number  of  great  horses  running 
on  the  people  to  overrun  them  ;  so  great  was  the 
sound  of  this  that  the  people  fell  down  one  upon 
the  other,  many  with  bills  ;  and  other  ran  this  way, 
some  that  way,  crying  aloud, '  Jesus,  save  us  !  Jesus, 
save  us  ! '  Many  of  the  people  crying,  c  This  way 
they  come,  that  way  they  come,  away,  away.'  And 
I  looked  where  one  or  other  should  strike  me  on 
the  head,  so  I  was  stonned  [stunned  ?].  The  people 
being  thus  amazed,  espies  Sir  Anthony  Brown  upon 
a  little  nag  riding  towards  the  scaffold,  and  therewith 


Somerset's  Death  167 

burst  out  crying  in  a  voice,  *  Pardon,  pardon, 
pardon  ! '  hurling  up  their  caps  and  cloaks  with 
these  words,  saying,  f  God  save  the  King !  God  save 
the  King  !  '  The  good  Duke  all  the  while  stayed, 
and,  with  his  cap  in  his  hand,  waited  for  the  people 
to  come  together."  l 

Whatever  had  been  Sir  Anthony's  errand,  it  had 
not  been  one  of  mercy  ;  and  when  the  excitement 
following  upon  the  panic  was  calmed  the  doomed 
man  and  the  crowd  were  alike  aware  that  the  people 
had  been  misled  by  hope,  and  that  no  pardon  had 
been  brought.  It  is  at  such  a  moment  that  a  man's 
mettle  is  shown.  With  admirable  dignity  Somerset 
bore  the  blow.  As  for  a  moment  he  had  participated 
in  the  expectation  of  the  cheering  throng  the  colour 
had  flickered  over  his  face  ;  but,  recovering  himself 
at  once,  he  resumed  his  interrupted  speech. 

"  Beloved  friends,"  he  said,  "  there  is  no  such 
matter  as  you  vainly  hope  and  believe."  Let  the 
people  accept  the  will  of  God,  be  quiet  as  he  was 
quiet,  and  yield  obedience  to  King  and  Council. 
A  few  minutes  more  and  all  was  over.  Somerset, 
in  the  words  of  a  chronicler,  had  taken  his  death 
very  patiently — with  the  strange  patience  in  which 
the  victims  of  injustice  scarcely  ever  failed  ;  the 
crowd,  true  to  the  last  to  their  faith,  pressing  for- 
ward to  dip  their  handkerchiefs  in  his  blood,  as  in 
that  of  a  martyr. 

1  Ellis's  Original  Letters^  Series  III.,  vol.  i.,  p.  216, 


1 68  Lady  Jane  Grey 

The  laconic  entry  in  the  King's  journal,  to  the 
effect  that  the  Duke  of  Somerset  had  had  his  head 
cut  off  on  Tower  Hill,  presents  a  sharp  contrast  to 
the  popular  emotion  and  grief.  The  deed  was,  at 
all  events,  done  ;  Northumberland  had  cleared  his 
most  formidable  competitor  from  his  path,  and 
had  no  suspicion  that  the  tragedy  of  that  winter's 
day  was  in  truth  paving  the  way  for  his  own  ultimate 
undoing. 


From  a  photo  by  Emerj'  Walker  after  a  painting  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

EDWARD   SEYMOUR,    DUKE   OF  SOMERSET,    K.G 


CHAPTER   XIII 
1552 

Northumberland  and  the  King — Edward's  illness — Lady  Jane  and 
Mary — Mary  refused  permission  to  practise  her  religion — The 
Emperor  intervenes. 

FOR  the  moment  master  of  the  field,  Northum- 
berland addressed  himself  sedulously  to  the 
task  of  strengthening  and  consolidating  the  position 
he  had  won.  In  the  Council  he  had  achieved 
predominance,  but  the  King's  minority  would  not 
last  for  ever,  and  the  necessity  of  laying  the 
foundation  of  a  power  that  should  continue  when 
Edward's  nominal  sovereignty  should  have  become 
a  real  one  was  urgent. 

The  lad  was  growing  up  ;  nor  were  there 
wanting  moments  causing  those  around  him  to 
look  on  with  disquietude  to  the  day  when  the 
nobles  ruling  in  his  name  might  be  called  upon  to 
give  an  account  of  their  stewardship.  A  curious 
anecdote  tells  how,  as  Northumberland  stood  one 
day  watching  the  King  practising  the  art  of  archery, 
the  boy  put  a  "  sharp  jest  "  upon  him,  not  without 
its  significance. 

"  Well  aimed,  my  liege,"  said  the  Duke  merrily, 
as  the  arrow  hit  the  white. 

169 


1 70  Lady  Jane  Grey 

"  But  you  aimed  better,'*  retorted  the  lad,  "  when 
you  shot  off  the  head  of  my  uncle  Somerset."  l 

It  was  a  grim  and  ominous  pleasantry,  and  in 
the  direct  charge  it  contained  of  responsibility  for 
the  death  of  Edward's  nearest  of  kin  another  shaft 
besides  the  arrow  may  have  been  sent  home. 
The  Tudors  were  not  good  at  forgiving.  Even 
had  the  King  seen  the  death  of  the  Duke's  rival  and 
victim  without  regret,  it  was  possible  that  he 
would  none  the  less  owe  a  grudge  to  the  man 
to  whom  it  was  due  ;  nor  was  Northumberland 
without  a  reason  for  anticipating  with  un- 
easiness the  day  when  Edward,  remembering 
all,  should  hold  the  reins  of  Government  in  his 
own  hands. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  was  clearly  his 
interest  to  commend  himself  to  the  young  sovereign, 
and  the  system  he  pursued  with  regard  to  his 
education  and  training  were  carefully  adapted  to 
that  purpose.  Whilst  the  Protector  had  had  the 
arrangement  of  affairs,  his  nephew  had  been  kept 
closely  to  his  studies  ;  Northumberland,  "  a  soldier 
at  heart  and  by  profession,  had  him  taught  to 
ride  and  handle  his  weapons,"  the  boy  welcoming 
the  change,  and,  though  not  neglecting  his  books, 
taking  pleasure  in  every  form  of  bodily  exercise  ; 2 
not  without  occasional  pangs  of  conscience,  when 

1  Heylyn's  Reformation,  vol.  ii.,  p.  7. 

*  Soranzo's  Report  (  Venetian  Calendar),  p.  535. 


Northumberland  and  the  King         171 

more  time  had  been  spent  in  pastime  than  he 
"  thought  convenient." 

"  We  forget  ourselves,"  he  would  observe, 
finding  fault  with  himself  sententiously  in  royal 
phrase,  upon  such  occasions,  c<  that  should  not 
lose  sub  st  ant  la  pro  ac  detente"  * 

It  had  been  the  Protector's  custom  to  place 
little  money  at  his  nephew's  disposal,  thus  rendering 
him  comparatively  straitened  in  the  means  of  exer- 
cising the  liberality  befitting  his  position  ;  and 
part  of  the  boy's  liking  for  the  Admiral  had  been 
owing  to  the  gifts  contrasting  with  the  niggardliness 
of  the  elder  brother.  Profiting  by  his  predecessor's 
mistakes,  Northumberland's  was  a  different  policy. 
He  supplied  Edward  freely  with  gold,  encouraged 
him  to  make  presents,  and  to  show  himself  a 
King  ;  acquainting  him  besides  with  public  business, 
and  flattering  him  by  asking  his  opinion  upon 
such  matters.2 

The  Duke  might  have  spared  his  pains.  It 
was  not  by  Edward  that  he  was  to  be  called  to 
account.  But  at  that  time  there  were  no  signs 
to  indicate  how  futile  was  the  toil  of  those  who 
were  seeking  to  build  their  fortunes  upon  his 
favour.  A  well-grown,  handsome  lad,  his  health 
had  given  no  special  cause  for  anxiety  up  to  the 
spring  of  1552.  In  the  March  of  that  year, 

1  Strype's  Ecclesiastical  Memorials,  vol.  ii.,  p.  2. 
?   Venetian  Calendar,  p.  535. 


172  Lady  Jane  Grey 

however,  a  sharp  and  complicated  attack  of  illness 
laid  him  low  and  sowed  the  seeds  of  future  delicacy. 

"  I  fell  sick  of  the  smallpox  and  the  measles," 
recorded  the  boy  in  his  diary.  "  April  1 5th  the 
Parliament  broke  up  because  I  was  sick  and  unable 
to  go  abroad." 

To  us,  who  read  the  laconic  entry  in  the  light 
thrown  upon  it  by  future  events,  it  marks  the 
beginning  of  the  end — not  only  the  end  of 
the  King's  short  life,  but  the  beginning  of  the 
drama  in  which  many  other  actors  were  to  be 
involved  and  were  to  meet  their  doom.  As  yet 
none  of  the  anxious  watchers  suspected  that 
death  had  set  his  broad  arrow  upon  the  lad  ;  and 
in  the  summer  he  had  so  far  recovered  as  to  be 
sending  a  blithe  account  to  Barnaby  Fitzpatrick, 
then  in  France,  of  a  progress  he  had  made  in  the 
country,  and  its  attendant  enjoyments.  Whilst  his 
old  playfellow  had  been  occupied  in  killing  his  ene- 
mies, and  sore  skirmishing  and  divers  assaults,  the 
King  had  been  killing  wild  beasts,  having  pleasant 
journeys  and  good  fare,  viewing  fair  countries,  and 
seeking  rather  to  fortify  his  own  than  to  spoil  another 
man's  l — so  he  wrote  gaily  to  Fitzpatrick. 

Meantime    his   illness,   with     the   dissolution    of 

Parliament     consequent     upon     it,      had    probably 

emptied  London  ;    the  Suffolk  family,  with  others, 

returning   to    their  country  home.     In   July    Lady 

1  Fuller's  Church  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  345. 


Mary  and  Lady  Jane  173 

Jane  was  on  a  visit  to  her  cousin,  the  Princess 
Mary,  at  Newhall ;  when,  once  more,  an  indiscreet 
speech — a  scoff,  on  this  occasion,  directed  against 
the  outward  tokens  of  that  Catholic  faith  to  which 
Mary  was  so  vehemently  loyal — may,  repeated  to 
her  hostess,  have  served  to  irritate  her  towards  the 
offender  against  the  rules  of  courtesy  and  good 
taste.  Under  other  circumstances,  it  might  have 
been  passed  over  by  the  older  woman  with  a 
smile  ;  but  subjected  to  annoyance  and  petty  per- 
secution by  reason  of  her  religion  and  saddened 
and  embittered  by  illness  and  misfortune,  the 
trifling  instance  of  ill-manners  on  the  part  of  a 
malapert  child  of  fifteen  may  have  had  its  share 
in  accentuating  a  latent  antagonism. 

In  the  course  of  the  previous  year  a  controversy 
had  reached  its  height  which  had  been  more  or 
less  imminent  since  the  statute  enjoining  the  use 
of  the  new  Prayer-book  had  been  passed,  a  work 
said  to  have  afforded  the  King — then  eleven 
years  of  age — ct  great  comfort  and  quietness  of 
mind."  From  that  time  forward — the  decree  had 
become  law  in  1549 — there  had  been  trouble  in 
the  royal  family,  as  might  be  expected  when 
opinion  on  vital  points  of  religion,  the  burning 
question  of  the  day,  was  widely  and  violently 
divergent,  and  friends  and  advisers  were  ever  at 
hand  to  fan  the  flame  of  discord  in  their  own 
interest  or  that  of  their  party. 


174  Lady  Jane  Grey 

No  one  could  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  the  ardent 
Catholicism  of  the  Princess  Mary,  next  in  succession 
to  the  throne,  constituted  a  standing  menace  to 
the  future  of  religion  as  recently  by  law  established, 
and  to  the  durability  of  the  work  hastily  carried 
through  in  creating  a  new  Church  on  a  new  basis. 
Furthermore  it  was  considered  that  her  present 
attitude  of  open  and  determined  opposition  to  the 
decree  passed  by  Parliament  was  a  cause  of  scandal 
in  the  realm.  It  was  certainly  one  of  annoyance 
to  the  King  and  Council. 

Cranmer  would  probably  have  liked  to  keep  the 
peace.  An  honest  man,  but  no  fanatic  and  holding 
moderate  views,  he  might  have  been  inclined,  having 
got  what  he  personally  wanted,  to  adopt  a  policy  of 
conciliation.  Affairs  had  gone  well  with  him  ;  his 
friends  were  in  power ;  and,  if  he  failed  to  in- 
spire the  foreign  divines  and  their  English  disciples 
with  entire  trust,  it  was  admitted  in  1550  by  John 
Stumpius,  of  that  school,  that  things  had  been  put 
upon  a  right  footing.  "  There  is,"  he  added,  "  the 
greatest  hope  as  to  religion,  for  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  has  lately  married  a  wife."  l 

Matters  being  thus  comfortably  arranged,  Cranmer, 
if  he  had  had  his  way,  might  have  preferred  to  leave 
them  alone.  But  what  could  one  man  do  in  the 
interests  of  peace,  when  Churchmen  and  laity  were 

1  Zurich  Letters,  vol.  ii.,  p.  466.  Meaning  that  Cranmer,  who  had 
already  been  married  some  years,  had  brought  his  wife  from 
Germany,  and  owned  her  openly.  See  Strype. 


Princess  Mary  Censured  i?5 

alike  clamouring  for  war,  when  the  King's  Council 
were  against  the  concession  of  any  one  point  at  issue, 
and  the  King  himself  had  composed,  before  he  was 
twelve  years  old,  and  "  sans  1'aide  de  personne 
vivant,"  a  treatise  directed  against  the  supremacy  of 
the  Pope  ?  To  the  honour  of  the  King's  counsellors, 
few  victims  had  suffered  the  supreme  penalty  during 
his  reign  on  account  of  their  religious  opinions  ; 1 
but  Gardiner  and  Bonner,  as  well  as  Bishops  Day 
and  Heath,  were  in  prison,  and  if  the  lives  of  the 
adherents  of  the  ancient  faith  were  spared,  no  other 
mitigation  of  punishment  or  indulgence  was  to  be 
expected  by  them. 

Under  pressure  from  the  Emperor  the  principal 
offender  had  been  at  first  granted  permission  to 
continue  the  practice  of  her  religion.  But  when 
peace  with  France  rendered  a  rupture  with  Charles 
a  less  formidable  contingency  than  before,  it  was 
decided  that  renewed  efforts  should  be  made  to 
compel  the  Princess  Mary  to  bow  to  the  fiat  of 
King  and  Council.  Love  of  God  and  affection  for 
his  sister  forbade  her  brother,  he  declared,  to 
tolerate  her  obstinacy  longer,  the  intimation  being 
accompanied  by  an  offer  of  teachers  who  should 
instruct  her  ignorance  and  refute  her  errors. 

Mary  was  a  match  for  both  King  and  Council. 
In  an  interview  with  the  Lords  she  told  them  that 

1  Two  victims  were  burnt  for  heresy,  Joan  Bocher  and  a  Dutch 
surgeon,  named  Pariss.  A  priest  is  also  stated  by  Wriothesley  to 
have  been  hanged  and  quartered,  July  7,  1548. 


176  Lady  Jane  Grey 

her  soul  was  God's,  and  that  neither  would  she 
change  her  faith  nor  dissemble  her  opinions  ;  the 
Council  replying  by  a  chilling  intimation  that 
her  faith  was  her  own  affair,  but  that  she  must 
obey  like  a  subject,  not  rule  like  a  sovereign.  The 
Princess,  however,  had  a  card  to  play  unsuspected  by 
her  adversaries.  The  dispute  had  taken  place  on 
August  1 8.  On  the  i9th  the  Council  was  un- 
pleasantly surprised  by  a  strong  measure  on  the  part 
of  the  imperial  ambassador,  in  the  shape  of  a 
declaration  of  war  in  case  his  master's  cousin  was 
not  permitted  the  exercise  of  her  religion. 

The  Council  were  in  a  difficulty.  War  with  the 
Emperor,  at  that  moment,  and  without  space  for 
preparation,  would  have  been  attended  with  grave 
inconvenience.  On  the  other  hand  Edward's  tender 
conscience  had  outrun  that  of  his  ministers,  and  had 
become  so  difficult  to  deal  with  that  all  the  per- 
suasions of  the  Primate  and  two  other  Bishops  were 
needed  to  convince  the  boy,  honest  and  zealous  in 
his  intolerance,  that  "  to  suffer  or  wink  at  [sin]  for  a 
time  might  be  borne,  so  all  haste  possible  was 
used." 

A  temporising  answer  was  therefore  returned 
to  the  imperial  ambassador,  "  all  haste  possible " 
being  made  in  removing  English  stores  from 
Flanders,  so  that,  in  case  of  a  rupture,  they 
might  not  fall  into  Charles's  hands.  This  ac- 
complished, fresh  and  stringent  measures  were  taken 


Mary  and  the  Council  177 

to  compel  the  Princess's  obedience ;  her  chief 
chaplain  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  charged 
with  having  celebrated  Mass  in  his  mistress's  house, 
and  three  of  the  principal  officers  of  her  household 
were  sent  to  join  him  there  as  a  punishment  for 
declining  to  use  coercion  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of 
the  offence. 

An  interview  followed  between  Mary  and  a 
deputation  of  members  of  the  Council,  who  visited 
her  with  the  object  of  enforcing  the  King's  orders. 
The  Princess  received  her  guests  with  undisguised 
impatience  ;  requested  them  to  be  brief ;  and,  having 
listened  to  what  they  had  to  say,  answered  shortly 
that  she  would  lay  her  head  upon  a  block — no  idle 
rhetoric  in  those  days — sooner  than  use  any  other 
form  of  service  than  that  in  use  at  her  father's  death  ; 
when  her  brother  was  of  full  age  she  was  ready 
to  obey  his  commands,  but  at  present — good, 
sweet  King  ! — he  could  not  be  a  judge  in  such 
matters.  Her  chaplains,  for  the  rest,  could  do  as 
they  pleased  in  the  matter  of  saying  Mass,  "  but 
none  of  your  new  service  shall  be  used  in  my  house, 
or  I  will  not  tarry  in  it." 

Thus  the  controversy  practically  ended.  The 
Council  dared  not  proceed  to  extremities  against  the 
Emperor's  cousin,  and  tacitly  agreed  to  let  her  alone, 
having  supplied  her  with  one  more  bitter  memory  to 
add  to  the  account  which  was  to  be  lamentably 
settled  in  the  near  future. 

12 


CHAPTER  XIV 
1552 

Lady  Jane's  correspondence  with  Bullinger — Illness  of  the  Duchess 
of  Suffolk — Haddon's  difficulties — Ridley's  visit  to  Princess 
Mary — the  English  Reformers — Edward  fatally  ill — Lady  Jane's 
character  and  position. 

THE  removal  of  the  two  Seymour  brothers, 
whilst  it  had  left  Northumberland  pre- 
dominant, had  also  increased  the  importance  of  the 
Duke  of  Suffolk.  Both  by  reason  of  the  position 
he  personally  filled,  and  owing  to  his  connection, 
through  his  wife,  with  the  King,  he  was  second  to 
none  in  the  State  save  the  man  to  whom  Somerset's 
fall  was  due  and  who  had  succeeded  to  his  power. 
He  shared  Northumberland's  prominence,  as  he  was 
afterwards  to  share  his  ruin  ;  and,  as  one  of  the  chief 
props  of  Protestantism,  he  and  his  family  continued 
to  be  objects  of  special  interest  to  the  divines  of  that 
persuasion,  foreign  and  English. 

Lady  Jane,  as  before,  was  in  communication  with 
the  learned  Bullinger,  and  in  the  same  month — 
July  1552 — that  her  visit  had  been  paid  to  the 
Princess  Mary  she  was  sending  him  another  letter, 
dated  from  Bradgate,  expressing  her  gratitude  for 
the  "  great  friendship  he  desired  to  establish  between 
them,  and  acknowledging  his  many  favours."  After 

178 


Illness  of  the  Duchess  of  Suffolk       179 

a  second  perusal  of  his  latest  letter — since  a  single 
one  had  not  contented  her — the  benefit  derived  from 
it  had  surpassed  that  to  be  obtained  from  the  best 
authors,  and  in  studying  Hebrew  she  meant  to 
pursue  the  method  he  recommended. 

In  August  more  pressing  interests  must  have 
taken  the  place  of  study,  for  at  Richmond  in  Surrey 
her  mother  was  attacked  by  a  sickness  threatening 
at  one  time  to  prove  fatal. 

"  This  shall  be  to  advertise  you,"  wrote  the 
Duchess's  husband,  hastily  summoned  from  London, 
to  Cecil,  "  that  my  sudden  departing  from  the  Court 
was  for  that  I  had  received  letters  of  the  state  my  wife 
was  in,  who  I  assure  you  is  more  liker  to  die  than  to 
live.  I  never  saw  a  sicker  creature  in  my  life  than  she 
is.  She  hath  three  diseases.  .  .  .  These  three  being 
enclosed  in  one  body,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  death 
must  needs  follow.  By  your  most  assured  and  loving 
cousin,  who,  I  assure  you,  is  not  a  little  troubled." 

His  anxiety  was  soon  relieved.  The  Duchess 
was  not  only  to  outlive,  but,  in  her  haste  to 
replace  him,  was  to  show  little  respect  for  his 
memory.  She  must  quickly  have  got  the  better  of 
her  present  threefold  disorder,  for  in  the  course  of 
the  same  month  a  letter  was  sent  from  Richmond 
by  James  Haddon,  the  domestic  chaplain,  to  Bullinger, 
making  no  mention  of  any  cause  of  uneasiness  as  to 
the  physical  condition  of  his  master's  wife.  He  was 
preoccupied  by  other  matters,  disquieted  by  scruples 


180  Lady  Jane  Grey 

of  conscience,  and  glad  to  unburthen  himself  to  the 
universal  referee  with  regard  to  certain  difficulties 
attending  his  position  in  the  Duke's  household. 

It  was  true  that  he  might  have  hesitated  to  com- 
municate the  fears  and  misgivings  by  which  he  was 
beset  to  a  guide  at  so  great  a  distance,  had  not  John 
ab  Ulmis — who,  as  portrayed  by  these  letters,  was 
somewhat  of  a  busybody,  eager  to  bring  all  his  friends 
into  personal  relations,  and  above  all  to  magnify  the 
authority  and  importance  of  his  master  in  spiritual 
things — -just  come  in  and  encouraged  him  to  write, 
stating  that  it  would  give  Bullinger  great  satisfaction 
to  be  informed  of  the  condition  of  religion  in 
England,  and  likewise — a  more  mundane  curiosity — 
of  that  of  the  Suffolk  household.  Entering  into 
a  description  of  both,  therefore,  in  a  missive  con- 
taining some  three  thousand  words,  Haddon  fully 
detailed  the  sorrows  and  perplexities  attending  the 
exercise  of  the  office  of  chaplain,  even  in  the  most 
orthodox  and  pious  of  houses. 

After  dealing  with  the  first  and  important  sub- 
ject of  religion  at  large,  he  proceeded  to  treat  of 
the  more  complicated  question — the  condition  of  the 
ducal  household,  and  especially  the  duties  attaching 
to  his  own  post. 

Of  the  general  regulation  of  the  house,  Ulmis,  he 
said,  was  more  capable  than  he  of  giving  an  account. 
It  was  rather  to  be  desired  that  Bullinger  should 
point  out  the  method  he  would  recommend.  But 


Haddon's  Difficulties  181 

upon  one  point  Haddon  was  anxious  to  obtain  the 
advice  of  so  eminent  a  counsellor,  and  he  went  on 
to  explain  at  length  the  case  of  conscience  by  which 
he  had  been  troubled.  This  was  upon  the  question 
of  the  lawfulness  or  unlawfulness  of  conniving, 
by  silence,  at  the  practice  of  gambling. 

The  situation  was  this.     The  Duke  and  Duchess 
had  strictly  forbidden  the  members  of  their  house- 
hold to  play  at  cards  or  dice  for  money.     So  far 
they  had  the  entire  approval  of  their  chaplain.     But 
— and  here  came  in  Haddon's  cause  of  perplexity — 
the    Duke   himself  and    his  most  honourable  lady, 
with    their    friends — perhaps,    too,    their  daughter, 
though  there  is  no  mention  of  her — not  only  claimed 
a  right  to  play  in  their  private  apartments,  but  also 
to  play  for  money.     The  divergence  between  precept 
and   practice — common    in    all   ages — was  grievous 
to    the    chaplain,    weighted    with    the    responsibility 
for    the  spiritual    and  moral   welfare  of  the    whole 
establishment,  from  his  "  patron  "  the  Duke,  down 
to  the  lowest    of  the  menials.     At  wearisome  and 
painstaking  length  he    recapitulated    the   arguments 
he  was  wont  to  employ  in  his  remonstrances  against 
the  gambling  propensities  he  deplored,  retailing,  as 
well,   the  arguments    with  which  the  offenders  met 
them.     "  In  this  manner  and  to  this  effect,"  he  says, 
"  the  dispute  is  often  carried  on." 

During    the  past  months  matters   had  reached  a 
climax.     As  late  as  up  to  the  previous  Christmas  he 


1 82  Lady  Jane  Grey 

had  confined  himself  to  administering  private 
rebukes  ;  but,  perceiving  that  his  words  had  taken 
no  effect,  he  had  forewarned  the  culprits  that  a  public 
reprimand  would  follow  a  continued  disregard  of  his 
monitions.  Upon  this  he  had  been  relieved  to  per- 
ceive that  there  had  been  for  a  time  a  cessation  of  the 
reprehensible  form  of  amusement,  and  had  cherished 
a  hope  that  all  would  be  well.  It  had  been  a  vain 
one.  Christmas  had  come  round — the  season  marked 
by  mummeries  and  wickedness  of  every  kind,  when 
persons  especially  served  the  devil  in  imitation,  as  it 
seemed,  of  the  ancient  Saturnalia  ;  and  though  this 
was  happily  not  the  case  in  the  Suffolk  family,  Duke 
and  Duchess  had  joined  in  the  general  backsliding 
to  the  extent  of  returning  to  their  old  evil  habit. 
Such  being  the  case,  Haddon  had  felt  that  he  had 
no  choice  but  to  carry  out  his  threat. 

In  his  Christmas  sermon  he  had  taken  occasion  to 
administer  a  reproof  as  to  the  general  fashion  of  keep- 
ing the  feast,  including  in  his  rebuke,  "  though  in 
common  and  general  terms,"  those  who  played  cards 
for  money.  No  one  in  the  household  was  at  a  loss 
to  fix  upon  the  offenders  at  whom  the  shaft  was 
directed.  The  Duke's  servants,  if  they  followed  his 
example,  took  care  never  to  be  detected  in  so  doing  ; 
and,  accepting  the  reprimand  as  addressed  to  them- 
selves, the  Duke  and  Duchess  took  it  in  bad  part, 
arguing  that  Haddon  would  have  performed  all  that 
duty  required  of  him  by  a  private  remonstrance. 


The  Duke  and  his  Chaplain  183 

From  that  time,  offence  having  been  given  by  his  plain 
speech,  the  chaplain  had  returned  to  his  old  custom 
of  administering  only  private  rebukes  ;  thus  con- 
niving, in  a  measure,  at  the  practice  he  condemned, 
lest  loss  of  influence  in  matters  of  greater  moment 
should  follow.  "  I  bear  with  it,"  he  sighed,  u  as  a 
man  who  holds  a  wolf  by  the  ears."  Conscience 
was,  however,  uneasy,  and  he  begged  Bullinger  to 
advise  in  the  matter  and  to  determine  how  far  such 
concessions  might  be  lawfully  made. 

Looking  impartially  at  the  question,  it  says  much 
for  the  Duke's  good  temper  and  toleration  that  the 
worthy  Haddon  continued  to  fill  his  post,  and  that 
when,  a  few  months  later,  he  was  promoted  to  be 
Dean  of  Exeter,  he  wrote  that  the  affection  between 
himself  and  his  master  was  so  strong  that  the  con- 
nection would  even  then  not  be  altogether  severed.1 
His  attitude  is  a  curious  and  interesting  example  of 
the  position  and  status  of  a  chaplain  in  his  day,  being 
wholly  that  of  a  dependant,  and  yet  carrying  with  it 
duties  and  rights  strongly  asserted  on  the  one  side 
and  not  disallowed  upon  the  other. 

The  Duchess,  having  recovered  from  her  illness, 
had  taken  her  three  daughters  to  visit  their  cousin 
Mary,  and  when  the  younger  children  were  sent 
home  Jane  remained  behind  at  St.  John's,  Clerkenwell, 
the  London  dwelling  of  the  Princess,  until  her  father 
came  to  fetch  wife  and  daughter  away.  That  the 

1  Zurich  Letters,  pp.  281  et  seq. 


184  Lady  Jane  Grey 

whole  family  had  been  thus  entertained  indicates 
that  they  were  at  this  time  on  a  friendly  footing 
with  the  Princess.  But  though  the  Duke  of 
Suffolk  was  doubtless  alive  to  the  necessity  of 
maintaining  amicable  relations,  so  far  as  it  was 
possible,  with  his  wife's  cousin  and  the  next  heir 
to  the  crown,  it  must  have  been  no  easy  matter, 
at  a  time  when  party  spirit  ran  so  high,  for  one 
of  the  chief  recognised  supporters  of  Protestantism 
to  continue  on  terms  of  cordiality  with  the  head  and 
hope  of  the  Catholic  section  of  the  nation.  Mary  was 
not  becoming  more  conciliatory  in'her  bearing  as  time 
went  on,  and  an  account  of  a  visit  paid  her  by  Ridley, 
now  Bishop  of  London  in  place  of  Bonner,  de- 
prived and  in  prison,  is  illustrative  of  her  present 
attitude. 

It  was  to  Hunsdon  that,  in  the  month  of  September, 
Ridley  came  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  King's  sister, 
cherishing,  it  may  be,  a  secret  hope  that  where  King 
and  Council  had  failed,  he  might  succeed  ;  and  his 
courteous  reception  by  the  officers  of  her  household 
was  calculated  to  encourage  his  sanguine  anticipations. 
Mary  too,  when,  at  eleven  o'clock,  he  was  admitted 
to  her  presence,  conversed  with  her  guest  right 
pleasantly  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  telling  him  that 
she  remembered  the  time  when  he  had  acted  as 
chaplain  to  her  father,  and  inviting  him  to  stay  to 
dinner.  It  was  not  until  after  the  meal  was  ended 
that  the  Bishop  unfolded  the  true  object  of  his  visit. 


MAR  I 
THE     N/U 
KtNGF    HENRI 


GHTER    PC 

VERTVOVS' 
iT?  IE     EIGHT 


'HE  AGE     OF 


Vfll    YPRF 


I-'rom  a  photo  hy  Emery  Walker  after  a  painting  by  Joannes  Corvus  in  the  National  1'ortrait  Gallery. 
PRINCESS    MARY,    AT   THE    AGE    OF   TWENTY-EIGHT. 


Dr.  Ridley's  visit  to  Mary  185 

It  was  not  one  of  simple  courtesy  ;  he  had  come,  he 
said,  to  do  his  duty  by  her  as  her  diocesan,  and  to 
preach  before  her  on  the  following  Sunday. 

If  Mary  prepared  for  battle,  she  answered  at  first 
with  quiet  dignity.  It  was  observed  that  she  flushed  ; 
her  response,  however,  was  merely  to  bid  him  "  make 
the  answer  to  that  himself."  When,  refusing  to 
take  the  hint,  the  Bishop  continued  to  urge  his 
point,  she  spoke  more  plainly. 

"  I  pray  you,  make  the  answer  (as  I  have  said)  to 
this  matter  yourself,"  she  repeated,  "  for  you  know  the 
answer  well  enough.  But  if  there  be  no  remedy  but 
I  must  make  you  answer,  this  shall  be  your  answer  : 
the  door  of  the  parish  church  adjoining  shall  be  open 
for  you  if  you  come,  and  you  may  preach  if  you 
list  ;  but  neither  I  nor  any  of  mine  shall  hear  you." 

To  preach  to  an  empty  church,  or  to  a  handful  of 
country  yokels,  would  not  have  answered  the  episcopal 
purpose  ;  and  Ridley  was  plainly  losing  his  temper. 

He  hoped,  he  said,  she  would  not  refuse  to  hear 
God's  word.  The  Princess  answered  with  a  scoff. 
She  did  not  know  what  they  now  called  God's  word  ; 
she  was  sure  it  was  not  the  same  as  in  her  father's 
time— to  whom,  it  will  be  remembered,  the  Bishop 
had  been  chaplain. 

The  dispute  was  becoming  heated.  God's  word, 
Ridley  retorted,  was  the  same  at  all  times,  but 
had  been  better  understood  and  practised  in  some 
ages  than  in  others.  To  this  Mary  replied  by  a 


1 86  Lady  Jane  Grey 

personal  thrust.  He  durst  not,  she  told  him,  for 
his  ears,  have  avowed  his  present  faith  in  King 
Henry's  time  ;  then — asking  a  question  to  which  she 
must  have  known  the  answer — was  he  of  the  Council  ? 
she  demanded.  The  inquiry  was  probably  intended 
as  a  reminder  that  his  rights  did  not  extend  to  inter- 
ference with  the  King's  sister,  as  well  as  to  elicit,  as  it 
did,  the  confession  that  he  held  no  such  post. 

"  You  might  well  enough,  as  the  Council  goeth 
nowadays,"  observed  Mary  carelessly  ;  proceeding, 
at  parting,  to  thank  the  Bishop  for  his  gentleness  in 
coming  to  see  her,  "  but  for  your  offering  to  preach 
before  me  I  thank  you  never  a  whit." 

In  the  presence  of  his  hostess  the  discomfited 
guest  appears  to  have  kept  his  temper  under  control, 
but,  having  duly  drunk  of  the  stirrup  cup  presented 
to  him  by  her  steward,  Sir  Thomas  Wharton,  he  gave 
free  expression  to  his  sentiments. 

"  Surely  I  have  done  amiss,"  he  said,  looking 
"  very  sadly,"  and  explaining,  in  answer  to  Wharton's 
interrogation,  that  he  had  erred  in  having  drunk 
under  a  roof  where  God's  word  was  rejected.  He 
should  rather  have  shaken  the  dust  off  his  feet  for 
a  testimony  against  the  house  and  departed  instantly, 
he  told  the  listeners  assembled  to  speed  him  on 
his  way — whose  hair,  says  Heylyn,  in  relating  this 
story,  stood  on  end  with  his  denunciations.1 

1  Foxe,   Acts    and   Monuments,  vol.    vi.,   pp.    354-5.     Heylyn's 
Reformation. 


The  English  Reformers  187 

Tf  scenes  of  this  kind  were  not  adapted  to  promote 
good  feeling  between  belligerents  in  high  places, 
neither  was  the  spirit  of  the  dominant  party  in  the 
country  one  to  conciliate  opposition.  It  is  not 
easy,  as  the  figures  of  the  English  pioneers  of 
Protestantism  pass  from  time  to  time  across  the 
stage,  in  these  years  of  their  first  triumph,  to  do 
them  full  justice.  To  judge  a  man  by  one  period  of 
his  life,  whether  it  is  youth  or  manhood  or  old  age, 
is  scarcely  fairer  than  to  pronounce  upon  the  colour 
and  pattern  of  an  eastern  carpet,  only  one  square  yard 
of  it  being  visible.  The  adherents  of  the  new  faith 
are  here  necessarily  represented  in  a  single  phase, 
that  of  prosperity.  At  the  top  of  the  wave, 
they  are  seen  at  their  worst,  assertive,  triumphant, 
intolerant  and  self-satisfied,  the  bull-dogs  of  the 
Reformation,  only  withheld  by  the  leash  from  worry- 
ing their  fallen  antagonist.  Thus,  for  the  most 
part,  they  appear  in  Edward's  reign.  And  yet  these 
men,  a  year  or  two  later,  were  many  of  them 
capable  of  an  undaunted  courage,  an  impassioned  belief 
in  the  common  Lord  of  Protestant  and  Catholic,  and 
a  power  of  endurance,  which  have  graven  their 
names  upon  the  national  roll-call  of  heroes. 

Meantime,  more  and  more,  the  King's  precarious 
health  was  suggestive  of  disturbing  contingencies. 
It  may  be  that,  as  some  assert,  his  uncle's  death,  once 
become  irrevocable,  had  preyed  upon  his  spirits — 
that  he  "  mourned,  and  soon  missed  the  life  of  his 


1 88  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Protector,  thus  unexpectedly  taken  away,  who,  now 
deprived  of  both  uncles,  howsoever  the  time  were 
passed  with  pastimes,  plays  and  shows,  to  drive 
away  dumps,  yet  ever  the  remembrance  of  them  sat 
so  near  his  heart  that  lastly  he  fell  sick.  .  .  ."  1  But 
though  it  is  possible  that,  as  his  strength  declined, 
matters  he  had  taken  lightly  weighed  upon  his 
spirits,  it  is  not  necessary  to  seek  other  than 
natural  and  constitutional  causes  for  a  failure  of 
health.  That  failure  must  have  filled  many  hearts 
with  forebodings. 

There  had  been  no  attempt  hitherto  to  ignore  or 
deny  the  position  occupied  by  Mary  as  next  heir  to 
the  throne.  When,  at  the  New  Year,  she  visited 
her  brother,  the  honours  rendered  to  her  were  a 
recognition  of  her  rights,  and  the  Northumberlands 
and  SufFolks  occupied  a  foremost  place  amongst  the 
"  vast  throng  "  who  rode  with  her  through  the  city 
or  met  her  at  the  palace  gate  and  brought  her  to 
the  presence-chamber  of  the  King.  Before  the  next 
New  Year's  Day  came  round  Edward  was  to  be  in 
his  grave  ;  Mary  would  fill  his  place  ;  and  the  little 
cousin  Jane,  now  spending  a  gay  Christmas  with 
her  father's  nephews  and  wards,  the  young 
Willoughbys,  at  Tylsey,  would  be  awaiting  her  doom 
in  the  Tower. 

The  shadow  was  already  darkening  over  the 
King.  It  is  said  that  the  seeds  of  his  malady  had 

1  Speed's  Chronicle,  p.  1122. 


Edward's  Last  Parliament  189 

been  sown  by  over-heating  in  his  sports,  during 
the  progress  of  which  he  had  sent  so  joyous  an 
account  to  Fitzpatrick.1  Soon  after  his  sister's 
visit  he  caught  a  bad  cold,  and  unfavourable  symp- 
toms appeared.  He  had,  however,  youth  in  his 
favour,  and  few  at  first  anticipated  how  speedy 
would  be  the  end.  Vague  disquiet  nevertheless 
quickly  passed  into  definite  alarm.  In  February 
the  patient's  condition  was  such  that  Northumber- 
land, who  of  all  men  had  most  at  stake,  summoned 
no  less  than  six  physicians,  desiring  them  to 
institute  an  examination  and  to  declare  upon  their 
oath,  first,  whether  they  considered  the  King's 
disease  mortal,  and,  if  so,  how  long  he  was  likely  to 
live.  The  reply  made  by  the  doctors  was  that  the 
malady  was  incurable,  and  that  the  patient  might 
live  until  the  following  September.2  Northumber- 
land had  obtained  his  answer  ;  it  was  for  him  to 
take  measures  accordingly. 

In  March  Edward's  last  Parliament  met  and  ended. 
"  The  King  being  a  little  diseased  by  cold-taking," 
recorded  a  contemporary  chronicle,3  "  it  was  not 
meet  for  his  Grace  to  ride  to  Westminster  in  the 
air,"'!  and  on  the  3ist — it  was  Good  Friday — the 
Upper  House  waited  upon  him  at  Whitehall, 
Edward  in  his  royal  robes  receiving  the  Lords 

1  Heylyn's  Reformation,  vol.  i.,  p.  291. 

2  Rosso,  Succesi  d' Inghilterra,  p.  5. 

3  Wriothesley's  Chronicle,  vol.  ii.,  p.  82. 

4  Ibid. 


190  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Spiritual    and  Temporal.     At    seven    that    evening 
Parliament  was  dissolved. 

Many  hearts,  loyal  and  true  and  pitiful,  will  have 
grieved  at  the  signs  of  their  King's  decay.  But  to 
Northumberland,  watching  them  with  the  keenness 
lent  by  personal  interest,  personal  ambition,  and 
possibly  by  a  consciousness  of  personal  peril,  they 
must  have  afforded  absorbing  matter  of  pre- 
occupation. The  exact  time  at  which  the  designs 
by  which  the  Duke  trusted  to  turn  the  boy's  death 
to  his  advantage  rather  than  to  his  ruin  took  definite 
shape  and  form  must  remain  to  some  extent  un- 
determined— his  plans  were  probably  decided  by  the 
verdict  given  by  the  doctors  in  February  ;  it  is 
certain  that  in  the  course  of  the  spring  they  were 
elaborated,  and  that  in  them  Lady  Jane  Grey, 
ignorant  and  unsuspicious,  was  a  factor  of  primary 
importance.  She  was  to  be  the  figure-head  of  the 
Duke's  adventurous  vessel. 

The  precise  date  of  her  birth  is  not  known,  but 
she  was  now  in  her  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  year — 
a  sorrowful  one  for  her  and  for  all  she  loved.  Child- 
hood was  a  thing  she  had  left  behind  ;  she  was 
touching  upon  her  brief  space  of  womanhood  ;  a 
few  months  later  and  that  too  would  be  over  ; 
she  would  have  paid  the  penalty  for  the  schemes 
and  ambitions  of  others. 

The  eulogies  of  her  panegyrists  have,  as  a  natural 
effect  of  extravagant  praise,  done  in  some  sort  an 


Lady  Jane's  Childhood  191 

injury  to  this  little  white  saint  of  the  English 
Reformation.  We  do  not  readily  believe  in  miracles  ; 
nor  do  infant  prodigies  either  in  the  sphere  of  morals 
or  attainments  attract  us.  Yet,  setting  aside  the 
tragedy  of  her  end,  there  is  something  that  appeals 
for  pity  in  the  very  precocity  upon  which  her  con- 
temporaries are  fond  of  dwelling,  testifying  as  it  does 
to  a  wasted  childhood,  to  a  life  robbed  of  its  natural 
early  heritage  of  carelessness  and  grace.  To  have  had 
so  short  a  time  to  spend  on  the  green  earth,  and  to 
have  squandered  so  large  a  portion  of  it  amongst 
dusty  folios,  and  in  the  acquirement  of  learning  ;  to 
have  pored  over  parchments  while  sun  and  air, 
flowers  and  birds  and  beasts — all  that  should  make 
the  delight  of  a  child's  life,  the  pageant  of  a  child's 
spring,  was  passed  by  as  of  no  account  ;  further,  to 
have  grown  up  versed  in  the  technicalities  of  barren 
theological  debate,  the  simple  facts  of  Christ's  re- 
ligion overlaid  and  obscured  by  the  bitterness  of  pro- 
fessional controversialists, — almost  every  condition  of 
her  brief  existence  is  an  appeal  for  compassion,  and 
Jane,  from  her  blood-stained  grave,  cries  out  that 
she  had  not  only  been  robbed  of  life  by  her 
enemies,  but  of  a  childhood  by  her  friends. 

To  a  figure  defaced  by  flattery  and  adulation, 
whose  very  virtues  and  gifts  were  made  to  minister 
to  party  ends,  it  is  difficult  to  restore  the  original 
brightness  and  beauty  which  nevertheless  belonged 
to  it.  But  here  and  there  in  the  pages  of  the 


i92  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Italian  evangelist,  Michel  Angelo  Florio,  who  was 
personally  acquainted  with  her,  pictures  are  to 
be  found  which,  drawn  with  tender  touches,  set 
the  girl  more  vividly  before  us  than  is  done  by 
the  stilted  commendations  of  English  devotees  or 
German  doctors  of  theology.  Many  times,  he 
says — times  when  it  may  be  hoped  she  had  for- 
gotten that  there  were  opponents  to  be  argued  with 
or  heretics  to  be  convinced  or  doctrinal  subtleties 
to  be  set  forth — she  would  speak  of  the  Word  of 
God  and  almost  preach  it  to  those  who  served 
her  ; 1  and  Florio  himself,  recounting  the  indignities 
and  insults  he  had  suffered  by  reason  of  his 
opinions,  had  seen  her  weep  with  pity,  so  that  he 
well  knew  how  much  she  had  true  religion  at  heart.2 
Her  attendants,  too — in  days  when  her  melancholy 
end  had  caused  each  trifling  incident  to  be  treasured 
like  a  relic  by  those  to  whom  she  had  been  dear- 
related  that  she  did  not  esteem  rank  or  wealth  or 
kingdom  worth  a  straw  in  comparison  with  the  know- 
ledge God  had  granted  to  her  of  His  only  Son.3 
It  must  be  remembered  that  in  no  long  time  she 
was  to  give  proof,  by  her  fashion  of  meeting  death,  that 
these  phrases  were  no  repetition  of  a  lesson  learned 
by  rote,  no  empty  and  conventional  form  of  words, 
but  the  true  and  sincere  confession  of  a  living  faith. 
1  Florio's  Life,  p.  27.  s  Ibid.,  p.  28.  3  Ibid. 


CHAPTER  XV 

1553 

The  King  dying — Noailles  in  England — Lady  Jane  married  to 
Guilford  Dudley — Edward's  will — Opposition  of  the  law 
officers — They  yield — The  King's  death. 

THE  King  was  becoming  rapidly  worse,  and  as 
his  malady  increased  upon  him,  strange  sus- 
picions were  afloat  amongst  the  people,  their  hatred 
to  Northumberland  giving  its  colour  to  their 
explanation  of  the  situation.  He  himself,  or  those 
upon  whom  he  could  count,  were  ever  with  the  sick 
boy,  and  hints  were  uttered — as  was  sure  to  be  the 
case — of  poison.  For  this,  murmured  the  populace, 
had  the  King's  uncles  been  removed,  his  faithful 
nobles  disgraced  ;  and  the  condition  of  public  opinion 
caused  the  Duke,  alarmed  at  its  hostility,  to  publish 
it  abroad  that  Edward  was  better.1 

In  May  a  rally  appears  to  have  in  fact  taken  place, 
giving  rise  in  some  quarters  to  false  hopes  of  re- 
covery, and  Mary  wrote  to  offer  her  congratulations 
to  her  brother  upon  the  improvement  in  his  health. 
On  May  13  the  new  French  ambassador,  Noailles, 
whose  audience  had  been  deferred  from  day  to  day, 
was  informed  by  the  Council  that  their  master  was 

1  Heylyn's  Reformation,  p.  297. 

193  J3 


*94  Lady  Jane  Grey 

so  much  better  that  he  would  doubtless  be  admitted 
to  the  royal  presence  in  the  course  of  a  few  days. 
The  doctors  told  a  different  story,  and  Noailles 
believed  the  doctors.  A  diplomatist  himself,  he 
knew  the  uses  of  lying  perhaps  too  well  to  condemn 
it  severely.  That  the  King  was  dying  was  practically 
certain,  and  though  those  whose  object  it  was 
to  conceal  the  fact  lest  measures  should  be  concerted 
to  ensure  the  succession  of  the  rightful  heir,  might 
do  their  best  to  disguise  the  fact,  the  truth  must 
become  known  before  long. 

Meantime  the  French  envoy,  in  the  interest  of 
the  reformed  party  in  England — not  by  reason  of 
their  religion,  but  as  opposed  to  Mary,  the  Emperor's 
cousin — was  quite  willing  to  play  into  Northumber- 
land's hands,  and  to  assist  him  in  the  work  of 
spreading  abroad  the  report  that  the  King's  malady 
was  yielding  to  treatment.  He  and  his  colleagues 
were  accordingly  conducted  to  an  apartment  near 
to  the  presence-chamber,  where  they  were  left  for  a 
certain  time  alone,  in  order  to  convey  the  impression 
that  they  had  been  personally  received  by  the 
sovereign.  Some  days  later  it  was  confessed,  but  as 
a  peril  past,  that  Edward  had  been  seriously  ill.  He 
was  then  stated  to  be  out  of  danger,  and  the 
ambassadors  were  admitted  to  his  presence,  finding 
him  very  weak,  and  coughing  much.1 

1  Ambassades  de  Noailles  ;,  Griffet,  Nouveaux  Eclaircissements 
sur  IHistoire  de  Marie. 


The  King's  Illness  195 

The  rally  had  been  of  short  duration.  Hope  of 
recovery  had,  in  truth,  been  abandoned  ;  and  those 
it  concerned  so  intimately  were  forced  to  face  the 
situation  to  be  created  by  his  death.  It  was  a 
situation  momentous  alike  to  men  whose  fortunes 
had  been  staked  upon  the  young  King's  life,  and  to 
others  honestly  and  sincerely  solicitous  regarding 
the  welfare  of  the  realm  and  the  consequences  to 
the  new  religion  should  his  eldest  sister  succeed  to 
the  throne. 

Every  one  of  the  Lords  of  the  Council  and 
officers  of  the  Crown,  with  almost  all  the  Bishops, 
save  those  who  had  suffered  captivity  and  deprivation, 
had  personal  reasons  for  apprehension.  Scarcely 
a  single  person  of  influence  or  power  could  count 
upon  being  otherwise  than  obnoxious  to  the  heir 
to  the  crown.  That  most  of  them  would  be  dis- 
placed from  their  posts  was  to  be  expected.  Some 
at  least  must  have  felt  that  property  and  life 
hung  in  the  balance.  But  it  was  Northumberland 
who,  as  he  had  most  to  lose,  had  most  to  fear. 
The  practical  head  of  the  State,  and  wielding 
a  power  little  less  than  that  of  Somerset,  he  had 
amassed  riches  and  offices  to  an  amount  bearing  wit- 
ness to  his  rapacity.  In  matters  of  religion  he  had 
been  as  strong,  though  less  sincere,  in  his  opposition 
to  the  Church  claiming  Mary's  allegiance  as  his 
predecessor.  During  the  preceding  autumn  the 
iconoclastic  work  of  destruction  had  been  carried  on 


196  Lady  Jane  Grey 

in  the  metropolitan  Cathedral ;  the  choir,  where 
the  high  altar  had  been  accustomed  to  stand,  had 
been  broken  down  and  the  stone-work  destroyed.1 
Gardiner  and  Bonner,  who,  as  prominent  sufferers 
for  the  Catholic  cause,  would  have  Mary's  ear,  were 
in  prison.  For  all  this  Northumberland,  with  the 
King's  Council  as  aiders  and  abettors,  was  respon- 
sible. Not  a  single  claim  could  be  advanced  to  the 
liking  or  toleration  of  the  woman  presently  to  be- 
come head  of  the  State.  If  safety  was  to  be  ensured 
to  the  advisers  of  her  brother,  steps  must  be  taken 
at  once  for  that  purpose.  Northumberland  and 
Suffolk  set  themselves  to  do  so. 

It  was  on  May  1 8  that  Noailles  and  his  colleagues 
had  been  at  length  permitted  to  pay  their  respects  to 
the  sick  boy.  On  Whitsunday,  the  2jrd — the  date, 
though  not  altogether  certain,  is  probable — three 
marriages  were  celebrated  at  Durham  House,  the 
London  dwelling-place  of  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land. On  that  day  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Duke 
of  Suffolk  became  the  wife  of  Lord  Guilford 
Dudley,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland's  fourth  arid, 
some  say,  favourite  son  ;  her  sister  Katherine  was 
bestowed  upon  Lord  Herbert,  the  earl  of  Pembroke's 
heir— to  be  repudiated  by  him  the  following  year — 
and  Lady  Katherine  Dudley,  Northumberland's 
daughter,  was  married  to  Lord  Hastings.1 

The  object  of  the  threefold  ceremony  was  clear. 
1  Wriothesley's  Chronicle,  vol.  ii.,  p.  79. 


Lady  Jane's  Marriage  197 

The  main  cause  of  it,  and  of  the  haste  shown  in 
carrying  it  through,  was  a  dying  boy,  whose  life  was 
flickering  out  a  few  miles  distant  at  Greenwich.  It 

D 

behoved  his  two  most  powerful  subjects,  Northumber- 
land and  Suffolk,  to  strengthen  their  position  as 
speedily  as  might  be,  and  by  this  means  it  was  hoped 
to  accomplish  that  object. 

The  place  chosen  for  the  celebration  of  the 
weddings  might  have  served — perhaps  it  did — to 
host  and  guests  as  a  reminder  of  the  perils  of 
those  who  climbed  too  high.  Durham  House, 
appropriated  in  his  days  of  prosperity  by  Somerset 
— to  the  indignation  of  Elizabeth,  who  laid  claim 
to  the  property — had  been  forfeited  to  the  Crown 
upon  his  attainder,  and  was  the  dwelling  of  his 
more  fortunate  rival ;  and,  as  if  to  drive  the  lesson 
further  home,  the  very  cloth  of  gold  and  silver  lent 
from  the  royal  coffers  to  deck  the  bridal  party 
had  been  likewise  drawn  from  the  possessions  of  the 
ill-starred  Duke.  The  dead  furnished  forth  the  festal 
array  of  the  living. 

That  day,  with  its  splendid  ceremonial — the 
marriages  took  place  with  much  magnificence  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  assembly,  including  the  principal 
personages  of  the  realm — presents  a  grim  and  striking 
contrast  to  what  was  to  follow.  None  were  present, 
so  far  as  we  know,  with  the  eyes  of  a  seer,  to  discern 
the  thin  red  ring  foretelling  the  proximate  fate  of 
the  girl  who  played  the  most  prominent  part  in  it,  or 


198  Lady  Jane  Grey 

to  recognise  in  death  the  presiding  genius  of  the 
pageant.  Yet  the  destiny  said  in  old  days  to  dog 
the  steps  of  those  doomed  to  a  violent  death  and 
to  be  present  at  their  side  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave  must  have  stood  by  many,  besides  the  bride, 
who  joined  in  the  proceedings  on  that  Whitsunday. 
Where  would  Northumberland  be  that  day  year  ? 
or  Suffolk  ?  or  young  Guilford  Dudley  ?  or,  a  little 
later,  the  Bishop  who  tied  the  knots? 

How  Jane  played  her  part  we  can  only  guess,  or 
what  she  had  thought  of  the  arrangement,  hurriedly 
concluded,  by  which  her  future  was  handed  over  to 
the  keeping  of  her  boy  husband.  Whether  willing 
or  unwilling,  she  had  no  choice  but  to  obey,  to 
accept  the  bridegroom  chosen  for  her — a  tall,  hand- 
some lad  of  seventeen  or  nineteen,  it  is  not  clear 
which — and  to  make  the  best  of  it.  Rosso  indeed, 
deriving  his  information  from  Michele,  Venetian 
ambassador  in  London,  and  Bodoaro,  Venetian 
ambassador  to  Charles  V.,  states  that  after  much 
resistance,  urged  by  her  mother  and  beaten  by  her 
father,  she  had  consented  to  their  wishes.  It  may 
have  been  true  ;  and,  standing  at  the  altar,  her 
thoughts  may  have  wandered  from  the  brilliant  scene 
around  her  to  the  room  at  Greenwich,  where  the 
husband  proposed  for  her  in  earlier  days  was  dying. 
She  might  have  been  Edward's  wife,  had  he  lived. 
She  can  scarcely  have  failed  to  have  been  aware  of 
the  hopes  and  designs  of  her  father,  of  those  of  the 


Lady  Jane's  Marriage  199 

dead  Admiral,  and  of  others  ;  she  had,  in  a  measure, 
been  brought  up  in  the  expectation  of  filling  a  throne. 
But  the  plan  was  forgotten  now.  Edward  was  to  be 
the  husband  neither  of  Jane  nor  of  that  other 
cousin,  not  of  royal  blood,  the  daughter  of  his 
sometime  Protector,  whose  father  was  dead  and 
mother  in  the  Tower  ;  nor  yet  of  the  foreign  bride, 
well  stuffed  and  jewelled,  of  whom  he  had  himself 
bragged.  He  was  dying,  like  any  other  boy  of 
no  royal  race,  upon  whose  life  no  momentous 
issues  hung.  From  his  sick-bed  he  had  taken  a  keen 
interest  in  what  was  going  forward,  appearing,  says 
Heylyn,  as  forward  in  the  marriages  as  if  he  had  been 
one  of  the  principals  in  the  plot  against  him.1  He 
might  be  fond  of  Jane,  but  even  had  he  loved  her — 
which  there  is  nothing  to  show — he  was  too  far 
within  the  shadow  of  the  grave  to  feel  any  jealousy 
in  seeing  her  handed  over  to  another  bridegroom. 

At  the  demeanour  of  the  little  victim  of  the 
Whitsun  sacrifice  we  can  but  guess.  Grave  and 
serious  we  picture  her,  as  it  was  her  wont  to  be, 
with  the  steadfast  face  depicted  by  the  painters  of 
the  day — far,  in  spite  of  Seymour's  boast,  from  being 
"as  handsome  as  any  lady  in  England,"  but  with  a 
purity  and  simplicity,  a  stillness  and  repose,  restful 
to  those  who  looked  into  the  quiet  eyes  and  marked 
the  tranquillity  of  the  countenance.  Did  she,  in 
her  inward  cogitations,  divine  that  there  was  danger 
1  Reformation,  vol.  i.,  p,  294, 


200  Lady  Jane  Grey 

ahead  ?  If  so  we  can  fancy  she  was  ready  to  face 
it.  Were  it  God's  will,  then  let  it  come.  Peril 
was  the  anteroom,  death  the  portal,  of  the  eternal 
city — the  heavenly  Jerusalem  in  which  she  believed. 

Such  was  the  image  printed  upon  the  time  by  the 
woman-child  who  was  never  to  know  maturity,  as  it 
lived  in  the  tender  and  loving  remembrance  of  her 
contemporaries,  the  delicately  sculptured  figure  of 
a  saint  in  the  temples  of  the  iconoclasts. 

By  the  country  at  large  the  sudden  marriages 
were  regarded  with  suspicion.  "  The  noise  of  these 
marriages  bred  such  amazement  in  the  hearts  of  the 
common  people,  apt  enough  in  themselves  to  speak 
the  worst  of  Northumberland,  that  there  was  nothing 
left  unsaid  which  might  serve  to  show  their  hatred 
against  him,  or  express  their  pity  for  the  King."  l 
Overbearing  and  despotic,  the  merciless  "  bear  of 
Warwick,"  as  he  was  nicknamed,  was  so  detested 
that  by  some  the  failure  of  his  scheme  was  after- 
wards ascribed  rather  to  his  unpopularity  than  to 
love  for  Mary.  Yet  it  was  Northumberland  who, 
with  the  blindness  born  of  a  sanguine  ambition,  was 
to  trust,  six  weeks  later,  to  the  populace  to  join 
with  him  in  dispossessing  the  King's  sister,  for 
whom  they  had  always  shown  affection,  and  in 
placing  his  daughter-in-law  and  her  boy-husband 
upon  the  throne.  So  glaring  a  misapprehension  of 
the  situation  demands  explanation,  and  it  is  partly 
1  Heylyn's  Reformation,  vol.  i.,  p.  294. 


ANN  o 


MDI.IV 


From  an  engraving  by  George  Noble  ufttr  a  paiijting  by  Holbein. 
LADY  JANE   GREY. 


Northumberland's  Character  201 

supplied  by  a  French  appreciation  of  the  Duke's 
character.  According  to  M.  Griffet,  he  was  more 
heedful  to  conceal  his  own  sentiments  than  capable 
of  discerning  those  of  others  ;  a  man  of  ambition 
who  neither  knew  whom  to  trust  nor  whom  to 
suspect ;  who,  blinded  by  presumption,  was  there- 
fore easily  deceived,  and  who  nevertheless  believed 
himself  to  possess  to  the  highest  degree  the  gift  of 
deceiving  all  the  world.1  Such  as  he  was,  he  had 
deceived  himself  to  his  undoing. 

Meantime  Lady  Jane's  marriage  had  made  for 
the  moment  little  change  in  her  manner  of  life. 
She  had  answered  the  purpose  for  which  she  was 
required,  and  was  permitted  temporarily  to  retire 
behind  the  scenes.  It  is  said — and  there  is  nothing 
unlikely  in  the  assertion — that,  the  ceremony  over 
and  obedience  having  been  rendered  to  her  parents' 
behest,  she  entreated  that  she  might  continue  with 
her  mother  for  the  present.  She  and  her  new 
husband  were  so  young,  she  pleaded.  Her  request 
was  granted.  She  was  Guilford  Dudley's  wife, 
could  be  the  wife  of  no  other  man,  and  that  was, 
for  the  moment,  sufficient. 

There  was  much  to  think  of,  much  to  do. 
Measures  had  to  be  taken  to  keep  the  King's  sisters 
at  a  distance,  lest  his  old  affection,  for  Elizabeth  in 
particular,  reawakening  might  frustrate  the  designs 
of  those  bent  upon  moulding  events  to  their 
1  Griffet,  £claircissements,  etc.,  p.  16. 


202  Lady  Jane  Grey 

advantage.  Above  all,  there  was  the  pressing 
necessity  of  inducing  the  King  to  exclude  them  by 
will  from  their  rightful  heritage.  On  June  16 
Noailles  had  again  been  conferring  with  the  doctors, 
and  had  learnt  that,  in  their  opinion,  Edward  could 
not  live  till  August.  Ten  days  later  Northumber- 
land came  from  Greenwich  to  visit  the  envoy,  and 
to  prevent  his  going  to  Court.  He  then  told  the 
Frenchman  that,  nine  days  earlier,  the  King  had 
executed  his  will  in  favour  of  the  Duke's  daughter- 
in-law,  Lady  Jane1 — "  qui  est  vertueuse,  sage,  et 
belle,"  reported  the  envoy  to  his  master  some  three 
weeks  later.2 

Of  the  manner  in  which  the  will  had  been  ob- 
tained full  information  is  available.  It  was  not  out 
of  love  for  Northumberland  that  Edward  had 
yielded  to  his  representations.  The  Throckmorton 
MS.3  asserts  that  Edward  abhorred  the  Duke  on 
account  of  his  uncle's  death.  Sir  Nicholas 
Throckmorton,  in  attendance  on  the  King,  should 
be  a  good  authority  ;  on  the  other  hand,  he 
was  opposed  to  the  Duke's  designs.  Whether  or 
not  the  latter  was  personally  distasteful  to  the  boy, 
it  was  no  difficult  matter  to  represent  the  situation 
in  a  fashion  to  lead  him  to  believe  the  sole  alterna- 
tive was  the  course  suggested  to  him.  Conscientious, 
pious,  scrupulous  to  a  fault,  and  worn  by  disease, 

1  Ambassades  de  Noailles,  vol.  i.,  p.  49.  *  Ibid.,  p.  57. 

3  Quoted  in  Strickland's  Queen  Mary, 


Edward's  Will  203 

the  future  of  religion  could  be  made  to  hang  upon 
his  fiat,  and  the  thought  of  Mary,  a  devout  Catholic, 
or  even  Elizabeth,  who  might  marry  a  foreign  prince, 
seated  upon  the  throne,  filled  him  with  apprehensions 
for  the  welfare  of  a  people  for  whom  he  felt  himself 
responsible.  Yet  he,  with  little  to  love,  had  loved 
both  his  sisters,  and  the  thought  of  the  sick  lad, 
torn  between  duty  and  affection,  a  tool  in  the  hands 
of  unprincipled  and  ambitious  men  who  could  play 
on  his  sensitive  conscience  and  over-strained  nerves 
at  will,  and  turn  his  piety  to  their  advantage,  is  a 
painful  one. 

The  Duke's  arguments  lay  ready  to  his  hand. 
Religion  was  in  danger,  the  Church  set  up  by 
Edward  in  jeopardy ;  the  work  that  he  had  done 
might  be  destroyed  as  soon  as  he  was  in  his  grave. 
How  could  he  answer  it  before  God  were  he,  who 
was  able  to  avert  it,  to  permit  so  great  an  evil  ? 
The  remedy  was  clear.  Let  him  pass  over  his 
sisters,  already  pronounced  severally  illegitimate  by 
unrepealed  statutes  of  Parliament,  and  entail  the 
crown  upon  those  who,  under  his  father's  will,  would 
follow  upon  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  the  descendants  of 
Mary  Tudor,  known  to  be  firm  in  their  attachment 
to  the  reformed  faith. 

Edward  yielded.  Given  the  circumstances,  the 
power  exercised  by  the  Duke  over  him,  his 
physical  condition,  his  fears  for  religion,  he  could 
scarcely  have  done  less.  With  his  own  hand  he 


204  Lady  Jane  Grey 

drew  up  the  draft  of  a  will  which,  amended  at 
Northumberland's  bidding,  left  the  crown  in  un- 
mistakable terms  to  Lady  Jane  and  her  heirs 
male.  It  had  now  to  be  made  law  and  accepted 
by  the  Council. 

On  June  1 1  Sir  Edward  Montagu,  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Common  Pleas,  Sir  Thomas  Bromley, 
another  Justice  of  the  same  court,  Sir  Richard  Baker, 
Chancellor  of  the  Augmentations,  and  the  Attorney- 
and  Solicitor-General  were  called  to  Greenwich,  and 
were  introduced  into  the  King's  apartment,  North- 
ampton, Gates,  and  others  being  present  at  the 
interview.  If  what  took  place  on  this  occasion  and 
at  the  other  audiences  of  the  legal  officers  with  the 
King,  as  recorded  by  themselves,  is  naturally,  as 
Dr.  Lingard  has  pointed  out,  represented  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  extenuate  their  conduct  in  Mary's  eyes, 
there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Montagu's 
account  is  substantially  true.1 

In  his  sickness,  Edward  told  them,  he  had  con- 
sidered the  state  of  the  realm,  and  of  the  suc- 
cession, should  he  die  without  leaving  direct  heirs  ; 
and,  proceeding  to  point  out  the  danger  to  religion 
and  to  liberty  should  his  sister  Mary  succeed  to  the 
throne,  he  ordered  them  to  "  make  a  book  with 
speed  "  of  his  articles. 

The  lawyers  demurred,  but  the  King,  feverishly 
eager  to  put  an  end  to  the  business,  and  conscious 
1  Fuller's  Church  History,  vol.  i.,  pp.  369  et  seq. 


Edward  and  the  Lawyers  205 

perhaps  that  if  the  thing  were  not  done  quickly 
it  might  not  be  done  at  all,  refused  to  listen  to 
the  objections  they  would  have  urged,  dismissing 
them  with  orders  to  carry  out  his  pleasure  with  haste. 
For  all  his  gentleness  and  piety,  Edward  was  a  Tudor, 
and  no  less  peremptory  than  others  of  his  race. 

Two  days  later — it  was  June  14 — having  de- 
liberated on  the  question,  the  men  of  law  acquainted 
the  Council  with  their  decision.  The  thing  could 
not  be  done.  To  make  or  execute  the  "  devise  " 
according  to  the  King's  instructions  would  be  treason. 
The  report  was  made  to  Sir  William  Petre  at  Ely 
Place  ;  but  the  Duke  of  Northumberland  was  at 
hand,  and  came  thereupon  into  the  Council- 
chamber,  "  being  in  a  great  rage  and  fury,  tremb- 
ling for  anger,  and,  amongst  all  his  ragious  talk 
called  Sir  Edward  Montagu  traitor,  and  further  said 
he  would  fight  any  man  in  his  shirt  in  that  quarrel." 
It  was  plain  that  no  technical  or  legal  obstacles  were 
to  be  permitted  to  turn  him  from  his  purpose. 

The  following  day  the  law-officers  were  again 
called  to  Greenwich.  Conveyed  in  the  first  place  to 
a  chamber  behind  the  dining-room,  they  met  with  a 
chilling  reception.  "  All  the  lords  looked  upon  them 
with  earnest  countenances,  as  though  they  had  not 
known  them ; "  and,  brought  into  the  King's  presence, 
Edward  demanded,  "  with  sharp  words  and  angry 
countenance,"  why  his  book  was  not  made  ? 

Montagu,   as    spokesman  for   his   colleagues,   ex- 


2o6  Lady  Jane  Grey 

plained.  Had  the  King's  device  been  executed 
it  would  become  void  at  the  King's  death,  the 
Statute  of  Succession  passed  by  Parliament 
being  still  in  force.  A  statute  could  be  altered 
by  statute  alone.  On  Edward's  replying  that 
Parliament  should  then  shortly  be  called  together, 
Montagu  caught  -at  the  solution.  The  matter 
could  be  referred  to  it,  and  all  perils  saved.  But 
this  was  not  the  King's  meaning.  The  deed,  he 
explained,  was  to  be  executed  at  once,  and  was  to 
be  afterwards  ratified  by  Parliament.  With  grow- 
ing excitement,  he  commanded  the  officers,  "  very 
sharply,"  to  do  his  bidding  ;  some  of  the  lords, 
standing  behind  the  King,  adding  that,  did  they 
refuse,  they  were  traitors. 

The  epithet  was  freely  bandied  about  in  those 
days,  yet  it  never  failed  to  carry  a  menace  ;  and 
Montagu,  in  as  "  great  fear  as  ever  he  was  in  all  his 
life  before,  seeing  the  King  so  earnest  and  sharp, 
and  the  Duke  so  angry  the  day  before,"  and  being 
an  "  old  weak  man  and  without  comfort,"  began  to 
look  about  for  a  method  of  satisfying  King  and 
Council  without  endangering  his  personal  safety.  In 
the  end  he  gave  way,  consenting  to  prepare  the 
required  papers,  on  condition  that  he  might  first 
be  given  a  commission  under  the  great  seal  to  draw 
up  the  instrument,  and  likewise  a  pardon  for  having 
done  so.  Northumberland  had  won  the  day. 

It  was  afterwards  reported  that  when  the  will  was 


Edward's  Will  Signed  207 

signed  a  great  tempest  arose,  with  a  whirlwind  such 
as  had  never  been  seen,  the  sky  dark  and  fearful, 
lightning  and  infinite  thunder  ;  one  of  the  thunder- 
bolts accompanying  that  terrible  storm  falling  upon 
the  miserable  church  where  heresy  was  first 
begotten.  ..."  This  accident  was  observed  by 
many  persons  of  sense  and  prudence,  and  was  con- 
sidered a  great  sign  of  the  avenging  justice  of  God."  l 

The  Council,  undeterred  by  the  manifestations  of 
divine  wrath,  were  not  backward  in  endorsing  the 
deed.  Overborne  by  the  Duke,  probably  also  in- 
fluenced by  the  apprehension  of  a  compulsory 
restoration  of  Church  spoils  should  Mary  succeed, 
they  unanimously  acquiesced  in  the  act  of  injustice. 
To  a  second  paper,  designed  by  the  Duke  to  commit 
his  colleagues  further,  twenty-four  councillors  and 
legal  advisers  set  their  hands.  By  June  21  the 
official  instrument  had  received  the  signatures  of 
the  Lords  of  the  Council,  other  peers,  judges,  and 
officers  of  the  Crown,  to  the  number  of  101.  The 
Princesses  had  been  set  aside,  and  the  fatal  heritage, 
so  far  as  it  was  possible,  secured  to  Lady  Jane.  The 
King,  at  the  direction  of  her  nearest  of  kin,  had  in 
effect  affixed  his  signature  to  her  death-sentence. 

When   Northumberland   was   assured  of  success 

he    gave    a    magnificent    musical    entertainment,    to 

which  the  French  ambassador  was    bidden.     Three 

days    earlier  it    had  been  reported  to    Noailles  that 

1  Rosso,  Succesi  cT  Inghilterra. 


2o8  Lady  jane  Grey 

Edward  was  at  the  point  of  death,  and  he  wag 
surprised  at  the  merry-making  and  the  good  spirits 
prevalent.  The  affair,  it  was  explained  to  him,  was 
in  honour  of  the  convalescence  of  the  King,  who  had 
been  without  fever  for  two  days,  and  whose  recovery 
appeared  certain.1  The  envoy  doubtless  expressed 
no  incredulity,  and  congratulated  the  company  upon 
the  good  tidings.  He  knew  that  Edward  was 
moribund,  and  understood  that  the  rejoicings  were 
in  truth  to  celebrate  the  approaching  elevation  to  the 
throne  of  Northumberland's  daughter-in-law. 

Was  she  present  ?  We  cannot  tell  ;  but  it  was  the 
Duke's  policy  to  make  her  a  prominent  figure,  and 
Noaille's  description  of  her  beauty  and  goodness 
implies  a  personal  acquaintance. 

It  only  remained  for  Edward  to  die.  All  those 
around  him,  with  perhaps  some  few  exceptions 
amongst  his  personal  attendants,  were  eagerly 
awaiting  the  end.  All  had  been  accomplished  that 
was  possible  whilst  he  was  yet  alive,  and  North- 
umberland and  his  friends  were  probably  impatient 
to  be  up  and  doing.  His  sisters  were  at  a  distance, 
his  uncles  dead,  Barnaby  Fitzpatrick  was  abroad,  and 
he  was  practically  alone  with  the  men  who  had  made 
him  their  tool.  The  last  scene  is  full  of  pathos. 
Three  hours  before  the  end,  lying  with  his  eyes 
shut,  he  was  heard  praying  for  the  country  which 
had  been  his  charge. 

1  Griffet's  £claircissements,  etc. 


Edward's  Death  209 

"  '  O  God,'  he  entreated,  *  deliver  me  out  of  this 
miserable  and  wretched  life,  and  take  me  among  Thy 
chosen  ;  howbeit  not  my  will,  but  Thine,  be  done. 
Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit  to  Thee.  O  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  how  happy  it  were  for  me  to  be  with 
Thee.  Yet,  for  Thy  chosen's  sake,  send  me  life  and 
health,  that  I  may  truly  serve  Thee.  O  my  Lord 
God,  bless  Thy  people  and  save  Thine  inheritance. 
O  Lord  God,  save  Thy  chosen  people  of  England. 
O  Lord  God,  defend  this  realm  from  Papistry  and 
maintain  Thy  true  religion,  that  I  and  my  people  may 
praise  Thy  holy  Name,  for  Jesus  Christ  His  sake.' 

"  Then  turned  he  his  face,  and  seeing  who  was 
by  him,  said  to  them  : 

"  *  Are  ye  so  nigh  ?  I  thought  ye  had  been  further 
off.' 

"  Then  Doctor  Owen  said  : 

"  *  We  heard  you  speak  to  yourself,  but  what  you 
said  we  know  not.' 

"  He  then  (after  his  fashion,  smilingly)  said,  c  I 
was  praying  to  God.'  "  1 

The  end  was  near. 

"  I  am  faint,"  he  said.  "  Lord,  have  mercy  upon 
me,  and  take  my  spirit  "  ;  and  so  on  July  7,  towards 
night,  he  passed  away.  On  the  following  day 
Noailles  communicated  to  his  Court  "  le  triste  et 
piteux  inconvenient  de  la  mort  "  of  Edward  VI., 
last  of  the  Tudor  Kings. 

1  Foxe's  Acts  and  Monuments,  vol.  vi.,  p.  352. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

1553 

After  King  Edward's  death — Results  to  Lady  Jane  Grey — 
Northumberland's  schemes — Mary's  escape — Scene  at  Sion 
House — Lady  Jane  brought  to  the  Tower — Quarrel  with  her 
husband — Her  proclamation  as  Queen. 

A  BOY  was  dead-  A  frail  little  life,  long  failing, 
had  gone  out.  That  was  all.  Nevertheless 
upon  it  had  hung  the  destinies  of  England. 

Speculations  and  forecasts  as  to  the  consequences 
had  Edward  lived  are  unprofitable.  Yet  one 
wonders  what,  grown  to  manhood,  he  would  have 
become — whether  the  gentle  lad,  pious,  studious, 
religious,  the  modern  Josiah,  as  he  was  often  called, 
would  have  developed,  as  he  grew  to  maturity, 
the  dangerous  characteristics  of  his  Tudor  race,  the 
fierceness  and  violence  of  his  father,  the  melancholy 
and  relentless  fanaticism  of  Mary,  the  absence  of 
principle  and  sensuality  of  Elizabeth.  Or  would  he 
have  fulfilled  the  many  hopes  which  had  found  their 
centre  in  him  and  have  justified  the  love  of  his 
subjects,  given  him  upon  credit  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  say.  What  was  certain  was 
that  his  part  was  played  out,  and  that  others  were  to 
take  his  place.  Amongst  these  his  little  cousin  Jane 


Lady  Jane's  Position 

was  at  once  the  most  innocent  and  the  most  un- 
fortunate. 

Hitherto  she  had  looked  on  as  a  spectator  at  life. 
Her  skiff  moored  in  a  creek  of  the  great  river,  she 
had  watched  from  a  place  of  comparative  calm  the 
stream  as  it  rushed  by.  Here  and  there  a  wave 
might  make  itself  felt  even  in  that  quiet  place  ; 
a  wreck  might  be  carried  past,  or  she  might  catch 
the  drowning  cry  of  a  swimmer  as  he  sank.  But  to 
the  young  such  things  are  accidents  from  participa- 
tion in  which  they  tacitly  consider  themselves 
exempted,  regarding  them  with  the  fearlessness  due 
to  inexperience.  Suddenly  all  was  to  be  changed. 
Torn  from  her  anchorage,  she  was  to  be  violently 
borne  along  by  the  torrent  towards  the  inevitable 
catastrophe. 

As  yet  she  was  ignorant  of  the  destiny  pre- 
pared for  her.  Under  her  father's  roof,  she  had 
pursued  her  customary  occupations,  and  by  some 
authorities  her  third  extant  letter  to  Bullinger  — 
another  tribute  of  admiration  and  flattery,  and  con- 
taining no  allusion  to  current  events — is  believed  to 
belong  to  the  interval  occurring  between  her  mar- 
riage and  the  King's  death.  The  allusion  to  herself 
as  an  "  untaught  virgin,"  and  the  signature  u  Jane 
Grey,"  seem  to  give  it  a  date  earlier  in  the  year. 
The  time  was  fast  approaching  when  leisure  for 
literary  exercises  of  the  kind  would  be  lacking. 

It  would  have  been  difficult  to  trace  her    move- 


2 12  Lady  Jane  Grey 

ments  precisely  at  this  juncture  were  it  not  that  she 
has  left  a  record  of  them  in  a  document — either 
directly  addressed  to  Mary  from  her  prison  or  in- 
tended for  her  eyes — in  which  she  demonstrated  her 
innocence.1  Notwithstanding  the  promise  made  by 
the  Duchess  of  Northumberland  at  her  marriage  that 
she  should  be  permitted  to  remain  at  home,  she  appears 
to  have  been  by  this  time  living  with  her  husband's 
parents,  and,  upon  Edward's  death  becoming  im- 
minent, she  was  informed  of  the  fact  by  her  father- 
in-law,  who  forbade  her  to  leave  his  house  ;  adding 
the  startling  announcement  that,  when  it  should 
please  God  to  call  the  King  to  His  mercy,  she  would 
at  once  repair  to  the  Tower,  her  cousin  having 
nominated  her  heir  to  the  throne. 

The  news  found  her  totally  unprepared  ;  and, 
shocked  and  partly  incredulous,  she  refused  obedi- 
ence to  the  Duke's  commands,  continuing  to  visit 
her  mother  daily,  in  spite  of  the  indignation  of  the 
Duchess  of  Northumberland,  who  "  grew  wroth 
with  me  and  with  her,  saying  that  she  was  determined 
to  keep  me  in  her  house  ;  that  she  would  likewise 
keep  my  husband  there,  to  whom  I  should  go  later 
in  any  case,  and  that  she  would  be  under  small 
obligation  to  me.  Therefore  it  did  not  seem  to  me 

1  The  paper  is  only  to  be  found  in  two  Italian  histories,  Pollini's 
Istoria  Ecclesiastica  della  Rivoluzione  cT  Inghilterra  and  Raviglio 
Rosso's  account  of  the  events  following  upon  Edward  s  death,  stated 
to  be  partly  drawn  from  the  despatches  of  Bodoaro.  The  discre- 
pancies here  and  there  in  the  translation  point  to  both  having  had 
access  to  an  English  version. 


Sion  House  213 

lawful  to  disobey  her,  and  for  three  or  four  days 
I  stayed  in  her  house,  until  I  obtained  permission  to 
resort  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland's  palace 
at  Chelsea."  At  this  place — the  reason  of  her 
preference  for  it  is  not  given — she  continued,  sick 
and  anxious,  until  a  summons  reached  her  to  go  to 
Sion  House,  there  to  receive  a  message  from  the 
King.  It  was  Lady  Sydney,  a  married  daughter  of 
the  Duke's,  who  brought  the  order,  saying,  "  with 
more  gravity  than  usual,"  that  it  was  necessary 
that  her  sister-in-law  should  obey  it ;  and  Lady  Jane 
did  not  refuse  to  do  so. 

Sion  House,  where  the  opening  scene  of  the 
drama  took  place,  was  another  of  the  possessions  of 
the  Duke  of  Somerset,  passed  into  the  hands  of 
his  rival.  A  monastery,  founded  by  Henry  V.  at 
Isleworth,  it  had  been  seized,  with  other  Church 
property,  in  1539,  and  had  served  two  years  later 
as  prison  to  the  unhappy  child,  Katherine  Howard. 
The  place  had  been  acquired  by  Somerset  in  the 
days  of  his  power,  when  the  building  of  the  great 
house,  which  was  to  replace  the  convent,  was  begun. 
The  gardens  were  enclosed  by  high  walls,  a  triangular 
terrace  in  one  of  their  angles  alone  allowing  the 
inmates  to  obtain  a  view  of  the  country  beyond.1 
In  1552  it  had,  with  most  of  the  late  Protector's 
goods  and  chattels,  been  confiscated,  and  during  the 
following  year,  the  year  of  the  King's  death,  had 
1  History  of  Syon  Monastery,  Aungier. 


Lady  Jane  Grey 

been  granted  to  Northumberland.  It  was  to  this 
place  that  Lady  Jane  was  taken  to  receive  the 
message  said  to  be  awaiting  her  from  the  King. 

Her  destination  reached,  Sion  House  was  found 
empty  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  those  who 
were  pulling  the  strings  arrived.  The  message  from 
the  King  had  been  a  fiction.  Edward's  gentle 
spirit  was  at  rest,  and  he  himself  forgotten  in  the 
rush  of  events.  There  was  little  time  for  thought 
of  the  dead.  The  interests  of  religion  and  of  the 
State,  as  some  would  call  it,  the  ambition  of  un- 
scrupulous and  unprincipled  men,  as  it  would  be 
named  by  others,  demanded  the  whole  attention  of 
the  steersmen  who  stood,  for  the  moment,  at  the  helm. 

It  had  been  decided  to  keep  the  fact  of  the  King's 
death  secret  until  measures  should  have  been  taken 
to  ensure  the  success  of  the  desperate  game  they 
were  playing.  To  secure  possession  of  the  person 
of  his  natural  successor  was  of  the  first  importance  ; 
and  a  letter  had  been  despatched  to  Mary  when  her 
brother  was  manifestly  at  the  point  of  death  which 
it  was  hoped  would  avail  to  bring  her  to  London  and 
would  enable  her  enemies  to  fulfil  their  purpose. 
Stating  that  the  King  was  very  ill,  she  was  entreated 
to  come  to  him,  as  he  earnestly  desired  the  comfort 
of  her  presence. 

Mary  must  have  been  well  aware  of  the  risk  she 
would  run  in  responding  to  the  appeal  ;  and  it  says 
much  for  her  courage  and  her  affection  that  she  did 


Mary  Warned  215 

not  hesitate  to  incur  it.  A  fortunate  chance,  however, 
frustrated  the  designs  against  her.  Starting  from 
Hunsdon,  where  the  tidings  had  found  her,  she 
had  reached  Hoddesden  on  her  way  to  Greenwich, 
when  she  was  met  by  intelligence  that  determined 
her  to  go  no  further.  The  King  was  dead  ;  nor 
was  it  difficult  to  discern  in  the  urgent  summons, 
sent  too  late  to  accomplish  its  ostensible  purpose, 
a  transparent  attempt  to  induce  her  to  place  herself 
in  the  power  of  her  enemies. 

Opinions  have  differed  as  to  the  means  by  which 
Northumberland's  scheme  was  frustrated.  Some  say 
that  the  news  was  conveyed  to  the  Princess  by  the 
Earl  of  Arundel.  Sir  Nicholas  Throckmorton  also 
claims  credit  for  the  warning.  According  to  this 
account  of  the  matter,  a  young  brother  of  his,  in 
attendance  upon  Northumberland,  had  become  cog- 
nisant of  the  intended  treachery,  and  had  come 
post-haste  to  report  what  was  a-foot  at  his  father's 
house.  A  few  words  spoken  by  Sir  John  Gates, 
visiting  the  Duke  before  he  had  risen,  were  all 
that  had  reached  the  young  man's  ears,  but  those 
words  had  been  of  startling  significance,  the  state 
of  affairs  being  what  it  was. 

"What,  sir,"  he  had  heard  Gates  say,  "will  you  let 
the  Lady  Mary  escape,  and  not  secure  her  person  ?  " 

A  consultation  was  hurriedly  held  at  Throckmorton 
House,  between  the  father  and  his  three  sons.  Sir 
Nicholas,  who  had  been  present  at  the  King's 


2i 6  Lady  Jane  Grey 

death,  was  too  well  aware  of  the  circumstances  to 
minimise  the  importance  of  his  brother's  story,  and, 
summoning  the  Princess  Mary's  goldsmith,  it  was 
decided  to  entrust  him  with  the  duty  of  conveying  a 
caution  to  his  mistress,  and  stopping  her  journey. 
Sir  Nicholas's  metrical  version  of  what  followed 
may  be  given.1 

Mourning,  from  Greenwich  did  I  straight  depart, 
To  London,  to  a  house  which  bore  our  name. 
My  brethren  guessed  by  my  heavie  hearte, 

The  King  was  dead,  and  I  confess'd  the  same  : 
The  hushing  of  his  death  I  didd  unfolde, 
Their  meaning  to  proclaime  Queene  Jane  I  tolde. 

Wherefore  from  four  of  us  the  newes  was  sent 

How  that  her  brother  hee  was  dead  and  gone  ; 
In  post  her  goldsmith  then  from  London  went, 
By  whom  the  message  was  dispatcht  anon. 
Shee  asked,  "  If  wee  knewe  it  certainlie  ?  " 
Who  said,  "  Sir  Nicholas  knew  it  verilie." 

The  first  stroke  hazarded  by  the  conspirators  had 
resulted  in  failure.  Mary,  after  some  deliberation, 
turned  her  face  northwards,  and  escaped  the  snare 
laid  for  her  by  her  enemies. 

The  next  object  of  Northumberland  and  his  friends 
was  to  obtain  the  concurrence  of  the  City  to  the 
substitution  of  his  daughter-in-law  for  the  rightful 
heir.  Various  as  were  the  views  of  the  best  means 
of  ensuring  success,  all  the  Council  were  agreed 
on  one  point,  namely,  "  that  London  was  the  hand 
which  must  reach  Jane  the  crown."  London  was  to 

1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  (Camden  Society),  p.  2. 
3  Speed's  Chronicle^  p.  1127. 


Lady  Jane  receives  the  News          217 

be  made  to  do  it.  On  July  8  the  Lord  Mayor,  with 
six  aldermen,  six  "  merchants  of  the  staple,  and  as 
many  merchant  adventurers,"  were  summoned  to 
Greenwich,  were  there  secretly  informed  of  the  King's 
death,  and  of  his  will  by  letters  patent,  "  to  which 
they  were  sworn  and  charged  to  keep  it  secret." 

All  this  had  been  done  before  Lady  Jane  was 
summoned  to  Sion  House.  It  was  time  for  the 
stage  Queen  to  make  her  appearance,  and  at  Sion 
the  facts  were  made  known  to  her.1 

Of  her  reception  of  the  great  news  accounts  vary. 
A  graphic  picture,  painted  in  the  first  place  by 
Heylyn,  has  been  copied  by  divers  other  historians. 
The  learned  John  Nichols,  unable  to  trace  it  in 
any  contemporary  documents  or  records,  has  decided 
that  it  must  be  classed  amongst  "  those  dramatic 
scenes  in  which  historical  writers  formerly  considered 
themselves  justified  in  indulging." : 

He  is  probably  right ;  yet  an  early  and  generally 
accepted  tradition  has  a  value  of  its  own,  and  may 
be  true  to  the  spirit,  if  not  to  the  letter,  of  what 
actually  occurred.  Mary  herself  afterwards  told  the 
envoy  of  Charles  V.  that  she  believed  her  cousin 
to  have  had  no  part  in  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 

1  Heylyn  makes  Durham  House  the  scene  of  the  announcement. 
In  this  he  seems  clearly  to  be  mistaken,  as  it  is  stated  in  the  Grey 
Friar's  Chronicle  that  she  was  brought  down  the  river  from 
Richmond  to  Westminster,  and  so  to  the  Tower. 

*  The  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary  (Camden  Society), 
P-3- 


2i 8  Lady  Jane  Grey 

land's  enterprise  ;  and,  supposing  her  to  have  been 
ignorant,  or  only  dimly  cognisant,  of  the  plot,  the 
revelation  of  it  may  easily  have  occasioned  her  a 
shock.  It  has  been  constantly  asserted  that,  in  this 
first  interview  with  those  who,  calling  themselves  her 
subjects,  were  practically  the  masters  of  her  fate, 
she  began  by  declining  to  be  a  party  to  their  scheme ; 
and  if  her  letter,  written  at  a  later  date,  from  the 
Tower  to  Mary,  does  not  wholly  confirm  the  asser- 
tion, it  points  to  an  attitude  of  reluctant  assent. 
Her  mother-in-law  had  given  her  hints  of  what  was 
intended,  but,  like  the  announcement  made  by 
the  Duke  at  Durham  House  of  her  approaching 
greatness,  they  were  too  incredible  to  be  taken 
seriously  ;  and  the  fact  that  when  she  was  joined 
at  Sion  by  the  Dukes  of  Northumberland  and 
Suffolk  they  did  not  at  once  make  the  matter 
plain,  but  confined  the  conversation  for  a  time  to 
indifferent  subjects,  seems  to  indicate  a  doubt  upon 
their  part  of  her  pliability.  There  was,  neverthe- 
less, a  change  in  their  demeanour  and  bearing 
giving  rise  in  her  mind  to  an  uneasy  conscious- 
ness of  a  mystery  she  had  not  fathomed  ;  whilst 
Huntingdon  and  Pembroke,  who  were  present, 
treated  her  with  even  more  incomprehensible 
reverence,  and  went  so  far  as  to  bow  the  knee. 

On  the  arrival  of  her  mother,  together  with  the 
Duchess  of  Northumberland,  the  explanation  of  the 
riddle  took  place.  The  tidings  of  the  King's  death 


Lady  Jane  receives  the  News          219 

and  of  her  exaltation  was  broken  to  her,  together 
with  the  reasons  prompting  Edward  to  set  aside  his 
sisters  in  her  favour.  The  nobles  fell  upon  their 
knees,  took  her  formally  for  their  Queen,  and 
swore — it  was  shortly  to  be  proved  how  little  the 
oath  was  worth — to  shed  their  blood  in  defence  of 
her  rights. 

"  Having  heard  which  things,"  pursues  Lady  Jane 
in  her  apology,  "  with  infinite  grief  of  spirit,  I  call 
to  witness  those  lords  who  were  present  that  I  was 
so  stunned  and  stupefied  that,  overcome  by  sudden 
and  unexpected  sorrow,  they  saw  me  fall  to  the 
ground,  weeping  very  bitterly.  And  afterwards, 
declaring  to  them  my  insufficiency,  I  lamented  much 
the  death  of  so  noble  a  prince  ;  and  at  the  same 
time  turned  to  God,  humbly  praying  and  beseeching 
Him  that,  if  what  was  given  me  was  in  truth  and 
legitimately  mine,  He  would  grant  me  grace  and 
power  to  govern  to  His  glory  and  service,  and  for 
the  good  of  this  realm." 

There  is,  as  Dr.  Lingard  points  out,  nothing  un- 
natural in  this  description  of  what  had  occurred  ; 
whereas  the  grandiloquent  language  attributed  to 
her  by  some  historians  is  most  unlikely  to  have 
been  used  at  a  moment  both  of  grief  and 
excitement.  According  to  these  authorities,  not 
only  did  she  defend  Mary's  right,  and  denounce 

1  Letter  from  Jane  to  Mary,  Pollini's   Istoria  Ecclesiastica  della 
Rivoluzione  d1  Inghilterra,  pp.  355-8. 


220  Lady  Jane  Grey 

those  who  had  conspired  against  it,  but  delivered 
a  lengthy  oration  upon  the  fickleness  of  fortune. 
"  If  she  enrich  any,  it  is  but  to  make  them  the 
subject  of  her  sport ;  if  she  raise  others,  it  is  but 
to  pleasure  herself  with  their  ruins.  What  she 
adored  yesterday,  to-day  is  her  pastime.  And  if 
I  now  permit  her  to  adorn  and  crown  me,  I  must 
to-morrow  suffer  her  to  crush  and  tear  me  to 
pieces  " — proceeding  to  cite  Katherine  of  Aragon 
and  Anne  Boleyn  as  examples  of  those  who  had, 
to  their  own  undoing,  worn  a  crown.  "  If  you  love 
me  sincerely  and  in  good  earnest,"  she  is  made  to  say, 
"  you  will  rather  wish  me  a  secure  and  quiet  fortune, 
though  mean,  than  an  exalted  condition  exposed 
to  the  wind,  and  followed  by  some  dismal  fall." 

Poor  little  plaything  of  the  fortune  she  is  repre- 
sented as  anathematising,  the  designs  of  those  who 
were  striving  to  exalt  her  were  due  to  nothing 
less  than  a  sincere  love.  Any  other  puppet 
would  have  answered  their  purpose  equally  well, 
so  that  the  excuse  of  royal  blood  was  in  her  veins. 
But  Jane,  willing  or  unwilling,  was  to  be  made  use 
of  for  their  ends,  and  it  was  vain  for  her  to  protest. 

On  the  following  day,  July  10,  the  Queen- 
designate  was  brought,  following  the  ancient  custom 
of  Kings  on  their  accession,  to  the  Tower ;  reaching 
it  at  three  o'clock,  to  be  received  at  the  gate  by 
Northumberland,  and  formally  presented  with  the 
keys  in  the  presence  of  a  great  crowd  who  looked 


Lady  Jane  at  the  Tower  221 

on  at  the  proceedings  in  sinister  silence  and  gave 
no  sign  of  rejoicing  or  cordiality. 

Shortly  after,  the  Marquis  of  Winchester,  in  his 
capacity  of  Treasurer,  brought  the  crown  jewels, 
with  the  crown  itself,  "  asking  me,"  wrote  Jane, 
"  to  put  it  on  my  head,  to  try  whether  it  fitted  me 
or  not.  Who  knows  well  that,  with  many  excuses, 
I  refused.  He  not  the  less  insisted  that  I  should 
boldly  take  it,  and  that  another  should  be  made 
that  my  husband  might  be  crowned  with  me,  which 
I  certainly  heard  unwillingly,  and  with  infinite  grief 
and  displeasure."  l 

The  idea  that  young  Guilford  Dudley,  with 
no  royal  blood  to  make  his  claim  colourable,  was 
intended  to  share  her  dignity  appears  to  have 
roused  his  wife,  somewhat  strangely,  to  hot  indigna- 
tion. She  at  least  was  a  Tudor  on  her  mother's 
side  ;  but  what  was  Dudley,  that  he  should  aspire  so 
high  ?  Had  she  loved  her  boy-husband  she  might 
have  taken  a  different  view  of  his  pretensions  ;  but 
there  is  nothing  to  show  that  she  regarded  him  with 
any  special  affection,  and  she  was  disposed  to  use 
her  authority  after  a  fashion  neither  he  nor  his 
father  would  tolerate. 

At   first    Guilford,  taken    by    surprise,    appeared 

inclined  to   yield  the   point,  and  in   a  conversation 

between  the  two,  when  Winchester  had  withdrawn, 

he  agreed  that,  were  he  to  be  made  King,  it  should 

1  Rosso,  Succesi  d'  Inghilterra,  p.  13. 


222  Lady  Jane  Grey 

be  only  by  Act  of  Parliament.  Thereupon,  losing 
no  time  in  setting  the  matter  on  a  right  footing, 
Jane  sent  for  the  Earls  of  Arundel  and  Pembroke, 
and  informed  them  that,  if  she  were  to  be  Queen, 
she  would  be  willing  to  make  her  husband  Duke  ; 
"  but  to  make  him  King  I  would  not  consent." 

Though  Arundel  and  Pembroke  were  probably 
quite  at  one  with  her  on  the  question,  that  she  should 
show  signs  of  exercising  an  independent  judgment 
was  naturally  exasperating  to  those  to  whom  it  was 
due  that  she  was  placed  in  her  present  position ;  and 
when  the  Duchess  of  Northumberland  became 
aware  of  what  was  going  forward  she  not  only 
treated  Lady  Jane,  according  to  her  own  account, 
very  ill,  but  stirred  up  Guilford  to  do  the  like  ;  the 
boy,  primed  by  his  mother,  declaring  that  he  would 
in  no  wise  be  Duke,  but  King,  and,  holding  sulkily 
aloof  from  his  wife  that  night,  so  that  she  was 
compelled,  "  as  a  woman,  and  loving  my  husband," 
to  send  the  Earls  of  Arundel  and  Pembroke  to  bring 
him  to  her,  otherwise  he  would  have  left  in  the 
morning,  at  his  mother's  bidding,  for  Sion.  "  Thus," 
ends  the  poor  child,  "  I  was  in  truth  deceived  by  the 
Duke  and  Council,  and  badly  treated  by  my  husband 
and  his  mother." 

The  discussion  was  premature.  Boy  and  girl 
were  all  too  soon  to  learn  that  it  was  not  to  be  a 
question  of  crowns  for  either  so  much  as  of  heads  to 
wear  them.  Whilst  the  wrangle  had  been  carried 


Lady  Jane  Proclaimed  223 

on  in  the  Tower,  the  first  step  had  been  taken 
towards  bringing  the  disputants  to  the  scaffold. 
The  death  of  the  King  had  been  made  public, 
together  with  the  provisions  of  his  will,  and  Jane 
had  been  proclaimed  Queen  in  two  or  three  parts  of 
the  City. 

"  The  tenth  day  of  the  same  month,"  runs  the 
entry  in  the  Grey  Friars  Chronicle,  "after  seven 
o'clock  at  night,  was  made  a  proclamation  in  Cheap 
by  three  heralds  and  one  trumpet  ...  for  Jane, 
the  Duke  of  Suffolk's  daughter,  to  be  Queen  of 
England.  But  few  or  none  said  '  God  save  her.' ' 

There  was  a  singular  unanimity  upon  the  subject 
amongst  the  citizens  of  London.  It  is  said  that 
upon  the  faces  of  the  heralds  forced  to  proclaim 
the  new  Queen  their  discontent  was  visible  ; 1  and 
a  curious  French  letter  sent  from  London  at  the 
time  states,  after  mentioning  the  absence  of  any 
acclamation  upon  the  part  of  the  people,  that  a 
moment  afterwards  they  had  broken  out  into 
lamentation,  clamour,  tears,  sighs,  sadness,  and 
desolation  impossible  to  describe. 

Thus  inauspiciously  was  Lady  Jane's  nine  days' 
reign  inaugurated.  On  a  great  catafalque  in  West- 
minster Abbey  the  dead  boy-King  was  lying, 
guarded  day  and  night  by  twelve  watchers  until 
he  should  be  given  sepulture.  But  there  was  little 
leisure  to  attend  to  his  obsequies  on  the  part  of 
1  Rosso,  Success '  c£  Inghilterra,  p.  9. 


224  Lady  Jane  Grey 

the  men  who  had  made  him  their  tool,  and  had 
staked  their  lives  and  fortunes  upon  the  success  of 
their  plot.  For  the  present  all  had  gone  according 
to  their  hopes.  "  Through  the  pious  intents  of 
Edward,  the  religion  of  Mary,  the  ambition  of 
Northumberland,  the  simplicity  of  Suffolk,  the 
fearfulness  of  the  judges,  and  the  flattery  of  the 
courtiers " — thus  Fuller  sums  up  the  causes  to 
which  the  situation  was  due — "  matters  were  made 
as  sure  as  man's  policy  can  make  that  good  which 
in  itself  is  bad."  It  was  quickly  to  be  seen  to  what 
that  security  amounted. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
1553 

Lady  Jane  as  Queen — Mary  asserts  her  claims — The  English 
envoys  at  Brussels — Mary's  popularity — Northumberland  leaves 
London — His  farewells. 

TO  enter  in  any  degree  into  the  position  of 
"  Jane  the  Queen  "  during  the  brief  period 
when  she  was  the  nominal  head  of  the  State,  the  time 
in  which  she  lived,  as  well  as  the  prevalent  conception 
of  royalty  in  England,  must  be  taken  into  the 
reckoning. 

In  our  own  days  she  would  not  only  have  been  a 
mere  cipher — as  indeed  she  was — but  would  have 
been  content  to  remain  such,  so  far  as  actual  power 
was  concerned.  Royalty,  stripped  of  its  reality, 
is  largely  become  a  mere  matter  of  show,  a  part 
of  the  pageant  of  State.  In  the  case  of  a  child 
of  sixteen  it  would  wear  that  character  alone.  But 
in  the  days  of  the  Tudors  a  King  was  accustomed 
to  govern  ;  even  in  the  hands  of  a  minor  a  sceptre 
was  not  a  mere  symbolic  ornament. 

And  Lady  Jane  was  precisely  the  person  to 
take  a  serious  view  of  her  duties.  Thought- 
ful, conscientious,  and  grave  beyond  her  years,  she 

225  15 


226  Lady  Jane  Grey 

had  no  sooner  found  herself  a  Queen  than  she  had 
asserted  her  authority  in  opposition  to  that  of  the 
man  who  had  invested  her  with  the  dignity  by 
announcing  her  intention  of  refusing  to  allow  it 
to  be  shared  by  his  son — already,  it  appears  by 
letters  from  Brussels,  recognised  there  as  Prince 
Consort — and  shut  up  in  the  gloomy  fortress  to 
which  she  had  been  taken  she  was  occupied 
with  the  thought  of  her  duty  to  the  kingdom  she 
believed  herself  to  be  called  to  rule  over,  of  the 
necessity  of  providing  for  the  wants  of  the  nation, 
and  more  especially  for  the  future  of  religion. 
Whilst,  perhaps,  all  the  time  there  lingered  in  her 
mind  a  misgiving,  lifting  its  head  to  confront  her 
from  time  to  time  with  a  paralysing  doubt,  torturing 
to  a  sensitive  and  scrupulous  nature  ;  was  she  indeed 
the  rightful  Queen  of  England  ? 

Mary  had  lost  no  time  in  asserting  her  claims. 
On  July  9 — the  day  before  that  of  Jane's  proclama- 
tion— she  had  written  a  letter  to  the  Council  from 
Kenninghall  in  Norfolk,  expressing  her  astonishment 
that  they  had  neither  communicated  to  her  the  fact 
of  her  brother's  death,  nor  had  caused  her  to  be 
proclaimed  Queen,  and  requiring  them  to  perform 
this  last  duty  without  delay.  The  rebuke  reaching 
London  on  the  morning  of  January  1 1  "  seemed  to 
give  their  Lordships  no  other  trouble  than  the 
returning  of  an  answer,"  l  which  they  did  in  terms 
1  Heylyn's  Reformation. 


Mary  and  the  Council  227 

of  studied  insult,  reminding  her  of  her  alleged 
illegitimacy,  and  exhorting  her  to  submit  to  her 
lawful  sovereign,  Queen  Jane,  else  she  should  prove 
grievous  unto  them  and  unto  herself.  This  uncon- 
ciliatory  document  received  the  signature  of  every 
one  of  the  Council,  including  Cecil,  who  was 
afterwards  at  much  pains  to  explain  his  concur- 
rence in  the  proceedings  of  his  colleagues ;  and 
Northumberland,  as  he  despatched  it,  must  have 
felt  with  satisfaction  that  it  would  be  difficult  for 
those  responsible  for  the  missive  to  make  their 
peace  with  the  woman  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

The  terms  in  which  the  defiance  was  couched  show 
the  little  importance  attached  to  the  chances  that 
Henry  VIII. 's  eldest  daughter  would  ever  be  in 
a  position  to  vindicate  her  rights.  Once  again 
her  enemies  had  failed  to  take  into  account  the 
stubborn  justice  of  the  people.  Though  by  many 
of  them  Mary's  religion  was  feared  and  disliked, 
they  viewed  with  sullen  disapproval  the  conspiracy 
to  rob  her  of  her  heritage.  And  Northumberland 
they  hated. 

The  sinister  rumours  current  during  the  last  few 
years  were  still  afloat ;  justified,  as  it  seemed,  by  the 
course  of  recent  events.  It  was  said  that  the  Duke 
had  incited  Somerset  to  put  his  brother  to  death,  and 
had  then  slain  Somerset,  in  order  that,  bereft 
of  his  nearest  of  kin,  the  young  King  might  the 
more  easily  become  his  victim.  The  reports  of  foul 


228  Lady  Jane  Grey 

play  were  repeated,  and  it  was  said  that  Edward 
had  been  removed  by  poison  to  make  way  for 
Northumberland's  daughter-in-law.  That  he  had 
not  come  by  his  death  by  fair  means  was  indeed 
so  generally  believed  that  the  Emperor,  writing  to 
Mary  when  she  had  defeated  her  enemies,  counselled 
her  to  punish  all  those  that  had  been  concerned 
in  it.1 

The  charge  of  poisoning  was  not  so  uncommon 
as  to  make  it  strange  that  it  should  be  thought  to 
have  been  instrumental  in  removing  an  obstacle  from 
the  path  of  an  ambitious  man.  In  Lady  Jane's 
pitiful  letter  to  her  cousin  she  stated — doubtless  in 
good  faith — that  poison  had  twice  been  administered 
to  her,  once  in  the  house  of  the  Duchess  of  North- 
umberland— when  the  motive  would  have  been  hard 
to  find — and  again  in  the  Tower,  "  as  I  have  certain 
evidence."  What  the  poor  child  honestly  believed 
had  been  attempted  in  her  case,  the  angry  people 
imagined  had  been  successfully  accomplished  in 
the  case  of  their  young  King,  and  his  death  was 
another  item  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  man  they 
hated. 

The  news  of  what  was  going  forward  in  England 
had  by  this  time  become  known  abroad.  Though 
letters  had  been  addressed  by  the  Council  to  Sir 
Philip  Hoby  and  Sir  Richard  Morysine,  ambassadors 
at  Brussels,  announcing  the  King's  death  and  his 
1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  Eclaircissements. 


The  News  reaches  Brussels  229 

cousin's  accession,  the  tidings  had  reached  them 
unofficially  before  the  arrival  of  the  despatches  from 
London.  As  the  envoys  were  walking  in  the  garden, 
they  were  joined  by  a  servant  of  the  Emperor's, 
Don  Diego  by  name,  who,  making  profession  of 
personal  good-will  towards  their  country,  expressed 
his  regret  at  its  present  loss,  adding  at  the  same 
time  his  congratulations  that  so  noble  a  King — 
meaning,  it  would  seem,  Guilford  Dudley — had  been 
provided  for  them,  a  King  he  would  himself  be  at 
all  times  ready  to  serve. 

The  envoys  replied  that  the  sorrowful  news  had 
reached  them,  but  not  the  joyous — that  they  were 
glad  to  hear  so  much  from  him.  Don  Diego  there- 
upon proceeded  to  impart  the  further  fact  of  Edward's 
will  in  favour  of  Lady  Jane.  With  the  question 
whether  the  two  daughters  of  Henry  VIII.  were 
bastards  or  not,  strangers,  he  observed,  had  nothing 
to  do.  It  was  reasonable  to  accept  as  King  him  who 
had  been  declared  such  by  the  nobles  of  the  land  ; 
and  Diego,  for  his  part,  was  bound  to  rejoice  that 
His  Majesty  had  been  set  in  this  office,  since  he  was 
his  godfather,  and — so  long  as  the  Emperor  was 
in  amity  with  him — would  be  willing  to  shed  his 
blood  in  his  service.1 

This  last  personal  detail  probably  contained  the 
explanation  of  Don  Diego's  approbation  of  an 
arrangement  which  could  scarcely  be  expected  to 
1  Strype's  Memorials, 


230  Lady  Jane  Grey 

commend  itself  to  his  master,  and  likewise  of  the 
curiously  subordinate  part  awarded  to  Lady  Jane 
in  his  account  of  it.  But  whatever  might  be  the 
opinion  of  foreigners,  it  had  quickly  been  made 
plain  in  England  that  the  country  would  not  be 
content  to  accept  either  the  sovereignty  of  Jane  or 
of  her  husband  without  a  struggle. 

Of  the  temper  of  the  capital  a  letter  or  libel 
scattered  abroad,  after  the  fashion  of  the  day, 
during  the  week,  is  an  example.  In  this  docu- 
ment, addressed  by  a  certain  "  poor  Pratte  "  to  a 
young  man  who  had  been  placed  in  the  pillory  and 
had  lost  his  ears  in  consequence  of  his  advocacy  of 
Mary's  rights,  love  for  the  lawful  Queen,  and  hatred 
of  the  "  ragged  bear,"  Northumberland,  is  expressed 
in  every  line.  Should  England  prove  disloyal,  mis- 
fortune will  overtake  it  as  a  chastisement  for  its 
sin  ;  the  Gospel  will  be  plucked  away  and  the  Lady 
Mary  replaced  by  so  cruel  a  Pharaoh  as  the  ragged 
bear.  Her  Grace — in  marked  contrast  to  the  senti- 
ments commonly  attributed  to  the  Duke — is  doubt- 
less more  sorrowful  for  her  brother  than  glad  to 
be  Queen,  and  would  have  been  as  glad  of  his  life 
as  the  ragged  bear  of  his  death.  In  conclusion,  the 
writer  trusts  that  God  will  shortly  exalt  Mary, 
"  and  pluck  down  that  Jane — I  cannot  nominate  her 
Queen,  for  that  I  know  no  other  Queen  but  the 
good  Lady  Mary,  her  Grace,  whom  God  prosper." 
To  those  who  would  Mary  to  be  Queen  poor 


Plans  of  Resistance  to  Mary          231 

Pratte  wishes  long  life  and  pleasure  ;  to  her 
opponents,  the  pains  of  Satan  in  hell.1 

Such  was  the  delirious  spirit  of  loyalty  towards 
the  dispossessed  heir,  even  amongst  those  who  owed 
no  allegiance  to  Rome.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
Council  were  to  be  taught  by  more  forcible  means 
than  scurrilous  abuse  to  correct  their  estimate  of  the 
situation  and  of  the  forces  at  work,  strangely 
misapprehended  at  the  first  by  one  and  all. 

News  was  reaching  London  of  the  support  tendered 
to  Mary.  The  Earls  of  Sussex  and  of  Bath  had 
declared  in  her  favour  ;  the  county  of  Suffolk  had 
led  the  way  in  rising  on  her  behalf;  nobles  and 
gentlemen,  with  their  retainers,  were  flocking  to 
her  standard  ;  it  was  becoming  clearer  with  every 
hour  that  she  would  not  consent  to  be  ousted  from 
her  rights  without  a  fierce  struggle. 

Measures  for  meeting  the  resistance  of  her  ad- 
herents had  to  be  taken  without  delay  ;  and 
Northumberland,  wisely  unwilling  to  absent  himself 
from  the  capital  at  a  juncture  so  critical,  had  intended 
to  depute  Suffolk  to  command  the  forces  to  be  led 
against  her  ;  to  gain,  if  possible,  possession  of  her 
person,  and  to  bring  her  to  London.  This  was 
the  arrangement  hastily  made  on  July  12.  Before 
nightfall  it  had  been  cancelled  at  the  entreaty  of 
the  titular  Queen. 

1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  ed.  John  Nichols 
(Camden  Society),  App.,  pp.  116-121. 


232  Lady  Jane  Grey 

It  is  not  difficult  to  enter  into  the  Lady  Jane's 
feelings,  threatened  with  the  absence  of  her  father 
on  a  dangerous  errand.  With  her  nervous  fears 
of  poison,  her  evident  dislike  of  her  mother-in-law, 
and  ill  at  ease  in  new  circumstances  and  surround- 
ings, she  may  well  have  clung  to  the  comfort  and 
support  afforded  by  his  presence  ;  nor  is  it  incom- 
prehensible that  she  had  "  taken  the  matter  heavily  " 
when  informed  of  the  decision  of  the  Council. 
Her  wishes  might  have  had  little  effect  if  other 
causes  had  not  conspired  to  assist  her  to  gain  her 
object,  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  those  of  the 
lords  already  contemplating  the  possibility  of  Mary's 
success,  and  desirous  of  being  freed  from  the  restraint 
imposed  by  Northumberland's  presence  amongst  them, 
may  have  had  a  hand  in  instigating  her  request, 
proffered  with  tears,  that  her  father  might  tarry  at 
home  in  her  company.  The  entreaty  was,  at  all 
events,  in  full  accordance  with  their  desires,  and 
pressure  was  brought  upon  Northumberland  to  in- 
duce him  to  yield  to  her  petition — leaving  Suffolk 
in  his  place  at  the  Tower,  and  himself  leading  the 
troops  north. 

Many  reasons  were  urged  rendering  it  advisable 
that  the  Duke  should  take  the  field  in  person.  He 
had  been  the  victor  in  the  struggle  with  Kett, 
of  which  Norfolk  had  been  the  scene,  and  enjoyed, 
in  consequence,  a  great  reputation  in  that  county, 
where  it  seemed  that  the  fight  with  Mary  and  her 


Northumberland  to  take  the  Field       233 

adherents  was  to  take  place.  He  was,  moreover, 
an  able  soldier  ;  Suffolk  was  not.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  impossible  for  Northumberland  to  adduce 
the  true  motives  prompting  his  desire  to  continue  at 
headquarters ;  since  chief  amongst  them  was  the 
wisdom  and  prudence  of  remaining  at  hand  to  main- 
tain his  personal  influence  over  his  colleagues  and  to 
keep  them  true  to  the  oaths  they  had  sworn.  In 
the  end  he  consented  to  bow  to  their  wishes. 

"  Since  ye  think  it  good,"  he  said,  "  I  and  mine 
will  go,  not  doubting  of  your  fidelity  to  the 
Queen's  Majesty,  which  I  leave  in  your  custody." 

More  than  the  Queen's  Majesty  was  left  to  their 
care.  The  safety,  if  not  the  life,  of  the  man  chiefly 
responsible  for  the  conspiracy  which  had  made  her 
what  she  was,  hung  upon  their  loyalty  to  their  vows, 
and  Northumberland  must  have  known  it.  But 
Lady  Jane  was  to  have  her  way,  and  the  Council, 
waiting  upon  her,  brought  the  welcome  news  to 
the  Queen,  who  humbly  thanked  the  Duke  for 
reserving  her  father  at  home,  and  besought  him — 
she  was  already  learning  royal  fashions — to  use  his 
diligence.  To  this  Northumberland,  surely  not 
without  an  inward  smile,  answered  that  he  would 
do  what  in  him  lay,  and  the  matter  was  concluded. 

At  Durham  House,  next  day,  the  Duke's  retinue 
assembled.1  In  the  forenoon  he  met  the  Council, 

1  The  foregoing  details  are  mostly  taken  from  Stowe's  Chronicle. 
At  this  point  The  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary 


234  Lady  Jane  Grey 

taking  leave  of  them  in  friendly  sort,  yet  with  words 
betraying  his  misgivings  in  the  very  terms  used 
to  convey  the  assurance  of  his  confidence  in  their 
good  faith  and  fidelity. 

He  and  the  other  nobles  who  were  to  be  his  com- 
panions went  forth,  he  told  the  men  left  behind,  as 
much  to  assure  their  safety  as  that  of  the  Queen 
herself.  Whilst  he  and  his  comrades  were  to  risk 
their  lives  in  the  field,  their  preservation  at  home, 
with  the  preservation  of  their  children  and  families, 
was  committed  to  those  who  stayed  in  London. 
And  then  he  spoke  some  weighty  words,  the  doubts 
and  forebodings  within  him  finding  vent  : 

"  If  we  thought  ye  would  through  malice,  con- 
spiracy, or  dissension,  leave  us  your  friends  in  the 
briars  and  betray  us,  we  could  as  well  sundry  ways 
forsee  and  provide  for  our  own  safeguards  as  any  of 
you,  by  betraying  us,  can  do  for  yours.  But  now, 
upon  the  only  trust  and  faithfulness  of  your  honours, 
whereof  we  think  ourselves  most  assured,  we  do 
hazard  and  jubarde  [jeopardize]  our  lives,  which  trust 
and  promise  if  ye  shall  violate,  hoping  thereby  of  life 
and  promotion,  yet  shall  not  God  count  you 
innocent  of  our  bloods,  neither  acquit  you  of  the 
sacred  and  holy  oath  of  allegiance  made  freely  by 
you  to  this  virtuous  lady,  the  Queen's  Highness, 
who  by  your  and  our  enticement  is  rather  of  force 

by  a  Resident  in  the  Tower  (Camden  Society),  takes  up  the  tale. 
The  anonymous  author  plainly  speaks  from  personal  knowledge, 
and  is  the  principal  authority  for  this  period. 


Northumberland's  Farewells  235 

placed  therein  than  by  her  own  seeking  and  request." 
Commending  to  their  consideration  the  interests 
of  religion,  he  again  reiterated  his  warning.  "  If 
ye  mean  deceit,  though  not  forthwith,  yet  hereafter, 
God  will  revenge  the  same,"  ending  by  assuring  his 
colleagues  that  his  words  had  not  been  caused  by 
distrust,  but  that  he  had  spoken  them  as  a  reminder 
of  the  chances  of  variance  which  might  grow  in  his 
absence. 

One  of  the  Council — the  narrator  does  not  give 
his  name — took  upon  him  to  reply  for  the  rest. 

"  My  Lord,"  he  answered,  a  if  ye  mistrust  any  of 
us  in  this  matter  your  Grace  is  far  deceived.  For 
which  of  us  can  wipe  his  hands  clean  thereof  ?  And 
if  we  should  shrink  from  you  as  one  that  is  culp- 
able, which  of  us  can  excuse  himself  as  guiltless  ? 
Therefore  herein  your  doubt  is  too  far  cast." 

It  was  characteristic  of  times  and  men  that,  far 
from  resenting  the  suspicion  of  unfaith,  the  sole 
ground  upon  which  the  Duke  was  asked  to  base  a 
confidence  in  the  fidelity  of  his  colleagues  was  that 
it  would  not  be  to  their  interest  to  betray  him. 

"  I  pray  God  it  may  be  so,"  he  answered.  "  Let 
us  go  to  dinner." 

After  dinner  came  an  interview  with  Jane, 
who  bade  farewell  to  the  Duke  and  to  the  lords 
who  were  to  accompany  him  on  his  mission.  Every- 
where we  are  confronted  by  the  same  heavy  at- 
mosphere of  impending  treachery.  As  the  chief 


236  Lady  Jane  Grey 

conspirator  passed  through  the  Council-chamber 
Arundel  met  him — Arundel,  who  was  to  be  one 
of  the  first  to  leave  the  sinking  ship,  and  who  may 
already  have  been  looking  for  a  loophole  of  escape 
from  a  perilous  situation.  Yet  he  now  prayed  God 
be  with  his  Grace,  saying  he  was  very  sorry  it  was 
not  his  chance  to  go  with  him  and  bear  him  com- 
pany, in  whose  presence  he  could  find  it  in  his  heart 
to  shed  his  blood,  even  at  his  foot. 

The  words,  with  their  gratuitous  and  unsolicited 
asseveration  of  loyal  friendship,  must  have  been 
remembered  by  both  when  the  two  met  again.  It 
is  nevertheless  possible  that,  moved  and  affected,  the 
Earl  was  sincere  at  the  moment  in  his  protestations. 

"Farewell,  gentle  Thomas,"  he  added  to  the 
Duke's  "  boy,"  Thomas  Lovell,  taking  him  by  the 
hand,  "  Farewell,  gentle  Thomas,  with  all  my 
heart." 

The  next  day  Northumberland  took  his  departure 
from  the  capital.  As  he  rode  through  the  city,  with 
some  six  hundred  followers,  the  same  ominous 
silence  that  had  greeted  the  proclamation  of  Lady 
Jane  was  preserved  by  the  throng  gathered  together 
to  see  her  father-in-law  pass.  The  Duke  noticed  it. 

"  The  people  press  to  see  us,"  he  observed 
gloomily,  "  but  not  one  sayeth  God  speed  us." 

When  next  Northumberland  and  the  London 
crowd  were  face  to  face  it  was  under  changed  cir- 
cumstances. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

1553 

Turn  of  the  tide — Reaction  in  Mary's  favour  in  the  Council — 
Suffolk  yields — Mary  proclaimed  in  London — Lady  Jane's 
deposition — She  returns  to  Sion  House. 

XT  ORTHUMBERLAND  was  gone.  The  weight 
IN  of  his  dominant  influence  was  removed,  and 
many  of  his  colleagues  must  have  breathed  more 
freely.  In  the  Tower  Lady  Jane,  with  those  of  the 
Council  left  in  London,  continued  to  watch  and 
wait  the  course  of  events.  It  must  have  been 
recognised  that  the  future  was  dark  and  uncertain  ; 
and  whilst  the  lords  and  nobles  looked  about  for 
a  way  of  escape  should  affairs  go  ill  with  the  new 
government,  the  boy  and  girl  arbitrarily  linked 
together  may  have  been  drawn  closer  by  the 
growing  sense  of  a  common  danger.  Guilford 
Dudley  did  not  share  his  father's  unpopularity. 
Young  and  handsome,  he  is  said  to  have  been 
endowed  with  virtues  calling  forth  an  unusual 
amount  of  pity  for  his  premature  end,1  and  Heylyn 
declared  that  of  all  Dudley's  brood  he  had  nothing 
of  his  father  in  him.2  "  He  was,"  says  Fuller,  adding 

1  Grafton's  Chronicle.  *  Heylyn's  Reformation. 

237 


238  Lady  Jane  Grey 

his  testimony,  "  a  goodly  and  (for  aught  I  find  to  the 
contrary)  a  godly  gentleman,  whose  worst  fault  was 
that  he  was  son  to  an  ambitious  father."  The 
flash  of  boyish  ambition  he  had  evinced  in  his 
determination  to  be  content  with  nothing  less  than 
kingship  must  have  been  soon  extinguished  by  the 
consciousness  that  life  itself  was  at  stake. 

For  quicker  and  quicker  came  tidings  of  fresh 
triumphs  for  Mary,  each  one  striking  at  the  hopes 
of  her  rival's  partisans.  News  was  brought  that  Mary 
had  been  proclaimed  Queen  first  in  Buckingham- 
shire ;  next  at  Norwich.  Her  forces  were  gathering 
strength,  her  adherents  gaining  courage.  Again,  six 
vessels  placed  at  Yarmouth  to  intercept  her  flight, 
should  she  attempt  it,  were  won  over  to  her  side, 
their  captains,  with  men  and  ordnance,  making 
submission  ;  whereat  "  the  Lady  Mary  " — from  whose 
mind  nothing  had  been  further  than  flight — "  and 
her  company  were  wonderful  joyous." 

This  last  blow  hit  the  party  acknowledging  Jane 
as  Queen  hard  ;  nor  were  its  effects  long  in  becoming 
visible.  In  the  Tower  "  each  man  began  to  pluck  in 
his  horns,"  and  to  cast  about  for  a  manner  of  dis- 
severing his  private  fortunes  from  a  cause  manifestly 
doomed  to  disaster.  Pembroke,  who  in  May  had 
associated  himself  with  Northumberland  by  marrying 
his  son  to  Katherine  Grey,  was  one  of  the  foremost 
in  considering  the  possibility  of  quitting  the  Tower,  so 
1  Fuller's  Worthies. 


Reaction  in  the  Council  239 

that  he  might  hold  consultation  with  those  without ; 
but  as  yet  he  had  not  devised  a  means  of  accomplish- 
ing his  purpose.  Each  day  brought  its  developments 
within  the  walls  of  the  fortress,  and  beyond  them. 
On  the  Sunday  night — not  a  week  after  the  crown 
had  been  fitted  on  Jane's  head — when  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  then  officiously  desirous  of  adding  a 
second  for  her  husband,  was  leaving  the  building 
in  order  to  repair  to  his  own  house,  the  gates  were 
suddenly  shut  and  the  keys  carried  up  to  the  mistress 
of  the  Tower.  What  was  the  reason  ?  No  one 
knew,  but  it  was  whispered  that  a  seal  had  been 
found  missing.  Others  said  that  she  had  feared 
some  packinge  [sic\  in  the  Treasurer.  The  days 
were  coming  when  it  would  be  in  no  one's  power 
to  keep  the  Lords  of  the  Council  at  their  post 
under  lock  and  key. 

That  Sunday  morning — it  was  July  16 — Ridley 
had  preached  at  Paul's  Cross  before  the  Mayor, 
Aldermen,  and  people,  pleading  Lady  Jane's  cause 
with  all  the  eloquence  at  his  command.  Let  his 
hearers,  he  said,  contrast  her  piety  and  gentleness 
with  the  haughtiness  and  papistry  of  her  rival.  And 
he  told  the  story  of  his  visit  to  Hunsdon,  of  his 
attempt  to  convince  Mary  of  her  errors,  and  of  its 
failure,  conjuring  all  who  heard  him  to  maintain 
the  cause  of  Queen  Jane  and  of  the  Gospel.  But 
his  exhortations  fell  on  deaf  ears. 

And  still  one  messenger  of  ill  tidings  followed 


240  Lady  Jane  Grey 

hard  upon  the  heels  of  another.  Cecil,  with  his 
natural  aptitude  for  intrigue,  was  engaging  in 
secret  deliberations  with  members  of  the  Council 
inclined  to  be  favourable  to  Mary,  finding  in 
especial  the  Lord  Treasurer,  Winchester,  the  Earl 
of  Arundel,  and  Lord  Darcy,  willing  listeners, 
"  whereof  I  did  immediately  tell  Mr.  Petre " — 
the  other  Secretary — "  for  both  our  comfort." 
Presently  a  pretext  was  invented  to  cover  the  escape 
of  the  lords  from  the  Tower.  It  was  said  that 
Northumberland  had  sent  for  auxiliaries,  and  that 
it  was  necessary  to  hold  a  consultation  with  the 
foreign  ambassadors  as  to  the  employment  of 
mercenaries.2  The  meeting  was  to  take  place  at 
Baynard's  Castle,  Arundel  observing  significantly 
that  he  liked  not  the  air  of  the  Tower.  He  and 
his  friends  may  indeed  have  reflected  that  it  had 
proved  fatal  to  many  less  steeped  in  treason  than 
they.  To  Baynard's  Castle  some  of  the  lords 
accordingly  repaired,  sending  afterwards  to  summon 
the  rest  to  join  them,  with  the  exception  of  Suffolk, 
who  remained  behind,  in  apparent  ignorance  of  what 
was  going  forward. 

In  the  consultation,  held  on  July  19,  the  death- 
blow was  dealt  to  the  hopes  of  those  faithful  to  the 
nine-days'  Queen.  Arundel  was  the  first  to  declare 
himself  unhesitatingly  on  Mary's  side,  and  to  de- 

1  Tytler's  Edward  and  Mary,  vol.  ii.,  p.  202. 
1  Rosso's  Svccesi, 


Reaction  in  the  Council  241 

nounce  the  Duke,  from  whom  he  had  so  lately 
parted  on  terms  of  devoted  friendship.  He  boasted 
of  his  courage  in  now  opposing  Northumberland — 
a  man  of  supreme  authority,  and — as  one  who  had 
little  or  no  conscience — fond  of  blood.  It  was  by 
no  desire  of  vengeance  that  Arundel's  conduct  was 
prompted,  he  declared,  but  by  conscience  and  anxiety 
for  the  public  welfare  ;  the  Duke  was  actuated 
by  a  desire  neither  for  the  good  of  the  kingdom  nor 
by  religious  zeal,  but  purely  by  a  desire  for  power, 
and  he  proceeded  to  hold  him  up  to  the  reprobation 
of  his  colleagues. 

Pembroke  made  answer,  promising,  with  his  hand 
on  his  sword,  to  make  Mary  Queen.  There  were 
indeed  few  dissentient  voices,  and,  though  some  of 
the  lords  at  first  maintained  that  warning  should 
be  sent  to  Northumberland  and  a  general  pardon 
obtained  from  Mary,  their  proposals  did  not  meet 
with  favour,  and  they  did  not  press  them. 

A  hundred  men  had  been  despatched  on  various 
pretexts,  and  by  degrees,  to  the  Tower,  with  orders  to 
make  themselves  masters  of  the  place,  in  case  Suffolk 
would  not  leave  it  except  upon  compulsion  ;  but  the 
Duke  was  not  a  man  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope.  Had 
Northumberland  been  at  hand  a  struggle  might 
have  taken  place  ;  as  it  was,  not  a  voice  was  raised 
against  the  decision  of  the  Council,  and  with  almost 
incredible  rapidity  the  face  of  affairs  underwent 
a  change,  absolute  and  complete.  Suffolk,  so  soon 

16 


Lady  Jane  Grey 

as  the  determination  of  the  lords  was  made  known 
to  him,  lost  no  time  in  expressing  his  willingness  to 
concur  in  it  and  to  add  his  signature  to  the  pro- 
clamation of  Mary,  already  drawn  up.1  He  was,  he 
said,  but  one  man  ;  and  proclaiming  his  daughter's 
rival  in  person  on  Tower  Hill,  he  finally  struck  his 
colours  ;  going  so  far,  as  some  affirm,  as  to  share  in 
the  demonstration  in  the  new  Queen's  honour  in 
Cheapside,  where  the  proclamation  was  read  by  the 
Earl  of  Pembroke  amidst  a  scene  of  wild  enthusiasm 
contrasting  vividly  with  the  coldness  and  apathy 
shown  by  the  populace  when,  nine  days  earlier,  they 
had  been  asked  to  accept  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land's daughter-in-law  as  their  Queen. 

"  For  my  time  I  never  saw  the  like,"  says  a  news- 
letter,2 "  and  by  the  report  of  others  the  like  was 
never  seen.  The  number  of  caps  that  were  thrown 
up  at  the  proclamation  were  not  to  be  told.  ...  I 
saw  myself  money  was  thrown  out  at  windows  for 
joy.  The  bonfires  were  without  number,  and,  what 
with  shouting  and  crying  of  the  people  and  ringing 
of  the  bells,  there  could  no  one  hear  almost  what 
another  said,  besides  banquetings  and  singing  in 
the  street  for  joy  " 

Arundel  was  there,  as  well  as  Pembroke,  with 
Shrewsbury  and  others,  and  the  day  was  ended  with 
evensong  at  St.  Paul's. 

1  Rosso's  Succesi. 

1  Quoted  in  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  p.  n. 


Lady  Jane's  Deposition  243 

And  whilst  all  this  was  going  on  outside,  in  the 
gloom  of  the  Tower,  where  the  air  must  have  struck 
chill  even  on  that  July  day,  sat  the  little  victim 
of  state-craft — "  Cette  pauvre  reine,"  wrote  Noailles 
to  his  master,  "  qui  s'en  peut  dire  de  la  feve  " — a 
Twelfth  Night's  Queen — in  the  fortress  that  had 
seen  her  brief  exaltation,  and  was  so  soon  to  become 
to  her  a  prison.  As  the  joy-bells  echoed  through 
the  City  and  the  shouting  of  the  people  penetrated 
the  thick  walls  she  must  have  wondered  what 
was  the  cause  of  rejoicing.  Presently  she  learnt 
it. 

That  afternoon  had  been  fixed  for  the  christening 
of  a  child  born  to  Underhyll — nicknamed,  on  account 
of  his  religious  zeal,  the  Hot-Gospeller — on  duty 
as  a  Gentleman  Pensioner  at  the  Tower.  The  baby 
was  highly  favoured,  since  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  and 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke  were  to  be  his  sponsors  by 
proxy  and  Lady  Jane  had  signified  her  intention  of 
acting  as  godmother,  calling  the  infant  Guilford,  after 
her  husband. 

Lady  Throckmorton,  wife  to  Sir  Nicholas,  in 
attendance  on  Jane,1  had  been  chosen  to  represent  her 
mistress  at  the  ceremony  ;  and,  on  quitting  the 
Tower  for  that  purpose,  had  waited  on  the  Queen 
and  received  her  usual  orders,  according  to  royal 

1  This  fact,  together  with  Sir  Nicholas's  subsequent  trial,  seems 
to  throw  doubt  upon  the  veracity  of  his  versified  account  of  the 
services  he  had  rendered  to  Mary. 


244  Lady  Jane  Grey 

etiquette.  Upon  her  return,  the  baptism  over,  she 
found  all — like  a  transformation  scene  at  the 
theatre — changed.  The  canopy  of  state  had  been 
removed  from  Lady  Jane's  apartment,  and  Lady 
Jane  herself,  divested  of  her  sovereignty,  was 
practically  a  prisoner.1 

During  the  absence  of  the  Lady-in-waiting,  Suffolk, 
his  part  on  Cheapside  played,  had  returned  to  the 
Tower,  to  set  matters  there  on  their  new  footing. 
Informing  his  daughter,  as  one  imagines  with  the 
roughness  of  a  man  smarting  under  defeat,  that 
since  her  cousin  had  been  elected  Queen  by  the 
Council,  and  had  been  proclaimed,  it  was  time  she 
should  do  her  honour,  he  removed  the  insignia 
of  royalty.  The  rank  she  had  possessed  not  being 
her  own  she  must  make  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and 
bow  to  that  fortune  of  which  she  had  been  the  sport 
and  victim. 

Rising  to  the  occasion,  Jane,  as  might  be  expected, 
made  fitting  reply.  The  words  now  spoken  by  her 
father  were,  she  answered,  more  becoming  and 
praiseworthy  than  those  he  had  uttered  on  putting 
her  in  possession  of  the  crown  ;  proceeding  to 
moralise  the  matter  after  a  fashion  that  can  only 
be  attributed  to  the  imaginative  faculties  of  the 
narrator  of  the  scene.  This  done  she,  more 
naturally,  withdrew  into  her  private  apartments  with 
her  mother  and  other  ladies  and  gave  way,  in  spite 

1  Biog.  Brit,     Quoted  in  Lady  Jane  Grey's  Literary  Remains, 


Lady  Jane's  Deposition  245 

of  her  firmness,  to  "  infinite  sorrow." *  A  further 
scene  narrated  by  the  Italian,  Florio,  on  the  authority 
of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk's  chaplain — "  as  her  father's 
learned  and  pious  preacher  told  me  " —  represents 
her  as  confronted  with  some  at  least  of  the  men  who 
had  betrayed  her,  and  as  reproaching  them  bitterly 
with  their  duplicity.  Without  vouching  for  the 
accuracy  of  the  speech  reported,  touches  are  dis- 
cernible in  it — evidences  of  a  very  human  wrath, 
indignation,  and  scorn — unlikely  to  have  been 
invented  by  men  whose  habit  it  was  to  describe 
the  speaker  as  the  living  embodiment  of  meekness 
and  patience,  and  it  may  be  that  the  evangelist's 
account  is  founded  on  fact. 

"  Therefore,  O  Lords  of  the  Council,"  she  is 
made  to  say,  "  there  is  found  in  men  of  illustrious 
blood,  and  as  much  esteemed  by  the  world  as  you, 
double  dealing,  deceit,  fickleness,  and  ruin  to  the 
innocent.  Which  of  you  can  boast  with  truth  that 
I  besought  him  to  make  me  a  Queen  ?  Where 
are  the  gifts  I  promised  or  gave  on  this  account  ? 
Did  ye  not  of  your  own  accord  drag  me  from  my 
literary  studies,  and,  depriving  me  of  liberty,  place 
me  in  this  rank  ?  Alas  !  double-faced  men,  how  well 
I  see,  though  late,  to  what  end  ye  set  me  in  this 
royal  dignity  !  How  will  ye  escape  the  infamy 
following  upon  such  deeds  ? "  How  were  broken 

1  LIstoria  Ecclesiastica  della  Rivoluzione  cPInghilterra.    Pollini, 
pp.  274,  275.     Rosso's  Succesi,  p.  20. 


246  Lady  Jane  Grey 

promises,  violated  oaths,  to  be  coloured  and  dis- 
guised ?  Who  would  trust  them  for  the  future  ? 
"  But  be  of  good  cheer,  with  the  same  measure  it 
shall  be  meted  to  you  again." 

With  this  prophecy  of  retribution  to  follow  she 
ended.  "  For  a  good  space  she  was  silent ;  and  they 
departed,  full  of  shame,  leaving  her  well  guarded."  1 

Her  attendants  were  not  long  in  availing  them- 
selves of  the  permission  accorded  them  to  go  where 
they  pleased.  The  service  of  Lady  Jane  was,  from 
an  honour,  become  a  perilous  duty  ;  and  they  went 
to  their  own  homes,  leaving  their  nine-days'  mistress 
"  burdened  with  thought  and  woe."  The  following 
morning  she  too  quitted  the  Tower,  returning  to 
Sion  House.  It  was  no  more  than  ten  days  since 
she  had  been  brought  from  it  in  royal  state. 

1  M.  A.  Florio,  Vita,  pp.  58(  59. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

1553 

Northumberland  at  bay — His  capitulation — Meeting  with  Arundel, 
and  arrest — Lady  Jane  a  prisoner — Mary  and  Elizabeth — Mary's 
visit  to  the  Tower — London — Mary's  policy. 

THE  unanimous  capitulation  of  the  Council,  in 
which  he  was  by  absence  precluded  from 
joining,  sealed  Northumberland's  fate.  The  centre 
of  interest  shifts  from  London  to  the  country,  whither 
he  had  gone  to  meet  the  forces  gathering  round 
Mary.  The  ragged  bear  was  at  bay. 

Arundel  and  Paget  had  posted  northwards  on  the 
night  following  the  revolution  in  London  to  inform 
the  Queen  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Council  and  to 
make  their  peace  with  the  new  sovereign  ;  Paget's 
success  in  particular  being  so  marked  that  the  French 
looker-on  reported  that  his  favour  with  the  Queen 
"  etait  chose  plaisante  a  voir  et  oir."  The  question 
all  men  were  asking  was  what  stand  would  be  made 
by  the  leader  of  the  troops  arrayed  against  her. 
That  Northumberland,  knowing  that  he  had  sinned 
too  deeply  for  forgiveness,  would  yield  without  a 
blow  can  scarcely  have  been  contemplated  by  the 
most  sanguine  of  his  opponents,  and  the  singular 

247 


248  Lady  Jane  Grey 

transmutation  taking  place  in  a  man  who  hitherto, 
whatever  might  have  been  his  faults  or  crimes,  had 
never  been  lacking  in  courage,  must  have  taken  his 
enemies  and  what  friends  remained  to  him  by  surprise. 

"  Bold,  sensitive,  and  magnanimous,"  as  some  one 
describes  him,1  he  was  to  display  a  lack  of  every 
manly  quality  only  explicable  on  the  hypothesis  that 
the  incessant  strain  and  excitement  of  the  last  three 
weeks  had  told  upon  nerves  and  spirits  to  an  extent 
making  it  impossible  for  him  to  meet  the  crisis  with 
dignity  and  valour. 

Hampered  with  orders  from  the  Council  framed 
in  Mary's  interest  and  with  the  secret  object  of 
delaying  his  movements  until  her  adherents  had  had 
time  to  muster  in  force,  he  did  not  adopt  the  only 
course — that  of  immediate  attack — offering  a  possi- 
bility of  success,  and  had  retreated  to  Cambridge 
when  the  news  that  Mary  had  been  proclaimed 
in  London  reached  him.  From  that  instant  he 
abandoned  the  struggle. 

On  the  previous  day  the  Vice-Chan cellor  of  the 
University,  Doctor  Sandys,  had  preached,  at  his 
request,  a  sermon  directed  against  Mary.  Now, 
Duke  and  churchman  standing  side  by  side  in  the 
market-place,  Northumberland,  with  the  tears  running 
down  his  face,  and  throwing  his  cap  into  the  air, 
proclaimed  her  Queen.  She  was  a  merciful  woman, 
he  told  Sandys,  and  all  would  doubtless  share  in  her 

1  Dictionary  of  National  Biography, 


Northumberland's  Arrest  249 

general  pardon.  Sandys  knew  better,  and  bade  the 
Duke  not  flatter  himself  with  false  hopes.  Were 
the  Queen  ever  so  much  inclined  to  pardon,  those 
who  ruled  her  would  destroy  Northumberland,  who- 
ever else  were  spared. 

The  churchman  proved  to  have  judged  more 
accurately  than  the  soldier.  An  hour  later  the  Duke 
received  letters  from  the  Council,  indicating  the 
treatment  he  might  expect  at  their  hands.  He  was 
thereby  bidden,  on  pain  of  treason,  to  disarm,  and 
it  was  added  that,  should  he  come  within  ten  miles 
of  London,  his  late  comrades  would  fight  him. 
Could  greater  loyalty  and  zeal  in  the  service  of  the 
rising  sun  be  displayed  ? 

Fidelity  was  at  a  discount.  His  troops  melted 
away,  leaving  their  captain  at  the  mercy  of  his 
enemies.  In  the  camp  confusion  prevailed. 
Northumberland  was  first  put  under  arrest,  then  set 
again  at  liberty  upon  his  protest,  based  upon  the 
orders  of  the  Council  that  "  all  men  should  go  his 
way."  Was  he,  the  leader,  to  be  prevented  from 
acting  upon  their  command  ?  Young  Warwick,  his 
son,  was  upon  the  point  of  riding  away,  when,  the 
morning  after  the  scene  in  the  market-place,  the 
Earl  of  Arundel  arrived  from  Queen  Mary  with 
orders  to  arrest  the  Duke. 

What  ensued  was  a  painful  spectacle,  Northumber- 
land's bearing,  even  in  a  day  when  servility  on  the 
part  of  the  fallen  was  so  common  as  to  be  almost  a 


250  Lady  Jane  Grey 

matter  of  course,  being  generally  stigmatized  as  un- 
worthy of  the  man  who  had  often  given  proof  of 
a  brave  and  noble  spirit.1  As  the  two  men  met,  it 
may  be  that  the  Duke  augured  well  from  the  Queen's 
choice  of  a  messenger.  If  he  had,  he  was  to  be 
quickly  undeceived.  Arundel  was  not  disposed  to 
risk  his  newly  acquired  favour  with  the  sovereign  for 
the  sake  of  a  discredited  comrade,  and  Northumber- 
land might  have  spared  the  abjectness  of  his  attitude  ; 
as,  falling  on  his  knees,  he  begged  his  former  friend, 
for  the  love  of  God,  to  be  good  to  him. 

" Consider,"  he  urged,  "I  have  done  nothing 
but  by  the  consents  of  you  and  all  the  whole 
Council." 

The  plea  was  ill-chosen.  That  Arundel  had  been 
implicated  in  the  treason  was  a  reason  the  more  why 
he  could  not  afford  to  show  mercy  to  a  fellow- 
traitor  ;  nor  was  he  in  a  mood  to  discuss  a  past  he 
would  have  preferred  to  forget  and  to  blot  out.  It 
is  the  unfortunate  who  are  prone  to  indulge  in  long 
memories,  and  the  Earl  had  just  achieved  a  success 
which  he  was  anxious  to  render  permanent.  Dis- 
regarding Northumberland's  appeal,  he  turned  at  once 
to  the  practical  matter  in  hand.  He  had  been  sent 
there  by  the  Queen's  Majesty,  he  told  the  Duke  ; 
in  her  name  he  arrested  him. 

Northumberland  made  no  attempt  at  resistance. 
He  obeyed,  he  answered  humbly  ;  "  and  I  beseech 

1  Rosso,  Succesi,  p.  23. 


Northumberland's  Arrest  251 

you,  my  Lord  of  Arundel,  use  mercy  towards  me, 
knowing  the  case  as  it  is." 

Again  Arundel  coldly  ignored  the  appeal  to  the 
past. 

"  My  lord,"  he  replied,  "  ye  should  have  sought 
for  mercy  sooner.  I  must  do  according  to  my 
commandment,"  and  he  handed  over  his  prisoner 
forthwith  to  the  guards  who  stood  near. 

For  two  hours,  denied  so  much  as  the  services  of 
his  attendants,  the  Duke  paced  the  chamber  wherein 
he  was  confined,  till,  looking  out  of  the  window, 
he  caught  sight  of  Arundel  passing  below,  and 
entreated  that  his  servants  might  be  admitted  to 
him. 

"  For  the  love  of  God,"  he  cried,  "  let  me  have 
Cox,  one  of  my  chamber,  to  wait  on  me  ! " 

"  You  shall  have  Tom,  your  boy,"  answered  the 
Earl,  naming  the  lad,  Thomas  Lovell,  of  whom,  a 
few  days  earlier,  he  had  taken  so  affectionate  a  leave. 
Northumberland  protested. 

"  Alas,  my  lord,"  he  said,  "  what  stead  can  a 
boy  do  me  ?  I  pray  you  let  me  have  Cox."  And 
so  both  Lovell  and  Cox  were  permitted  to  attend 
their  master.  It  was  the  single  concession  he  could 
obtain.1 

Thus  Northumberland  met  his  fate. 

The  Queen's  justice  had  overtaken  more  innocent 
victims.  Lady  Jane's  stay  at  Sion  House  had  not 

1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane,  etc.,  pp.  10,  n. 


25 2  Lady  Jane  Grey 

been  prolonged.  By  July  23,  not  more  than  three 
days  after  she  had  quitted  the  Tower,  she  returned 
to  it,  not  as  a  Queen,  but  as  a  captive,  accompanied 
by  the  Duchess  of  Northumberland  and  Guilford 
Dudley,  her  husband.  More  prisoners  were  quickly 
added  to  their  number.  Northumberland  was 
brought,  with  others  of  his  adherents,  from 
Cambridge.  Northampton,  who  had  hurried  to 
Framlingham,  where  Mary  then  was,  to  throw 
himself  upon  her  mercy,  arrived  soon  after  ;  with 
Bishop  Ridley,  who,  notwithstanding  his  recent 
declamations  against  the  Queen,  had  resorted  with 
the  rest  to  Norfolk,  had  met  with  an  unfriendly 
reception  from  Mary,  and  was  sent  back  to  London 
"  on  a  halting  horse."  l 

It  is  singular  that  to  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  pro- 
minent amongst  those  who  had  been  arrayed  against 
her,  the  new  Queen  showed  unusual  indulgence. 
So  far  as  actual  deeds  were  concerned,  he  had  been 
second  in  guilt  only  to  Northumberland  ;  though 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  he  was  led  and  governed 
by  the  stronger  will  and  more  soaring  ambition  of 
his  confederate.  Lady  Jane  being,  besides,  his 
daughter,  and  not  merely  married  to  his  son,  it 
would  have  been  natural  to  expect  that  he  would 
have  been  called  to  a  stricter  account  than  Dudley. 
He  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  arrested  and  con- 
signed to  the  Tower  ;  but  when  a  convenient  attack 

1  Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments. 


Mary's  Triumph  253 

of  illness  laid  him  low — a  news-letter  reporting  that 
he  was  "  in  such  case  as  no  man  judgeth  he  could 
live  "  l — and  his  wife  represented  -his  desperate  con- 
dition to  her  cousin  the  Queen,  adding  that,  if  left 
in  the  Tower,  death  would  ensue,  Mary  appears  to 
have  made  no  difficulty  in  granting  her  his  freedom, 
merely  ordering  him  to  confine  himself  to  his  house, 
rather  as  restraint  than  as  chastisement.2 

Mary  could  afford  to  show  mercy.  On  August  3 
she  made  her  triumphal  entry  into  the  capital  which 
had  proved  so  loyal  to  her  cause,  riding  on  a  white 
horse,  with  the  Earl  of  Arundel  bearing  before  her 
the  sword  of  state,  and  preceded  by  some  thousand 
gentlemen  in  rich  array. 

Elizabeth  was  at  her  side — Elizabeth,  who  had 
learnt  wisdom  since  the  days,  nearly  five  years  ago, 
when  she  had  compromised  herself  for  the  sake  of 
Seymour.  During  the  crisis  now  over,  she  had 
shown  both  prudence  and  caution,  playing  in  fact 
a  waiting  game,  as  she  looked  on  at  the  contest  be- 
tween her  sister  and  Northumberland,  and  carefully 
abstaining  from  taking  any  side  in  it,  until  it  should 
be  seen  which  of  the  two  would  prove  victorious. 
To  her,  as  well  as  to  Mary,  a  summons  had  been 
sent  as  from  her  dying  brother  ;  more  wary  than 
her  sister,  she  detected  the  snare,  and  remained  at 
Hatfield,  whilst  Mary  came  near  to  falling  a  prey 
to  her  enemies.  At  Hatfield  she  continued  during 
1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane,  etc.  p.  16.  ?  Rosso. 


254  Lady  Jane  Grey 

the  ensuing  days,  being  visited  by  commissioners 
from  Northumberland,  who  offered  a  large  price,  in 
land  and  money,  in  exchange  for  her  acquiescence 
in  Edward's  appointment  of  Lady  Jane  as  his 
successor.  If  Elizabeth  loved  money,  she  loved  her 
safety  more  ;  and  returned  an  answer  to  the  effect 
that  it  was  with  her  elder  sister  that  an  agreement 
must  be  made,  since  in  Mary's  lifetime  she  herself 
had  neither  claim  nor  title  to  the  succession.  Leti,1 
representing  her  as  regarding  Lady  Jane  as  a  jeune 
etourdie — the  first  and  only  time  the  epithet  can  have 
been  applied  to  Suffolk's  grave  daughter — states  that 
she  indignantly  expostulated  with  Northumberland 
upon  the  wrong  done  to  herself  and  Mary.  She  is 
more  likely  to  have  kept  silence  ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  an  opportune  attack  of  illness  afforded  her  an 
excuse  for  prudent  inaction.  When  Mary's  cause  had 
become  triumphant  she  had  recovered  sufficiently  to 
proceed  to  London,  meeting  her  sister  on  the  following 
day  at  Aldgate,  and  riding  at  her  side  when  she  made 
her  entry  into  the  capital. 

The  two  presented  a  painful  contrast :  Mary  pre- 
maturely aged  by  grief  and  care,  small  and  thin, 
"  unlike  in  every  respect  to  father  or  mother,"  says 
Michele,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  "  with  eyes  so 
piercing  as  to  inspire  not  only  reverence,  but  fear  "  ; 
Elizabeth,  now  twenty,  tall  and  well  made,  though 
possessing  more  grace  than  beauty,  with  fine  eyes, 
1  Vied? Elizabeth,  p.  198. 


From  a  photo  by  Emery  Walker  after  a  painting  attributed  to  F.  Zuccaro. 
QUEEN    ELIZABETH. 


Mary  visits  the  Tower  255 

and,    above   all,    beautiful   hands,    "  della   quale   fa 
professione  " — which  she  was  accustomed  to  display. 

Her  entry  into  the  City  made,  Mary  proceeded, 
according  to  ancient  custom,  and  as  her  unwilling 
rival  had  done  three  weeks  before,  to  the  Tower, 
where  a  striking  scene  took  place.  On  her  entrance 
she  was  met  by  a  group  of  those  who,  imprisoned 
during  the  two  previous  reigns,  awaited  her  on  their 
knees.  Her  kinsman,  Edward  Courtenay,  was  there 
— since  he  was  ten  years  old  he  had  known  no  other 
home — and  the  Duchess  of  Somerset,  widow  of  the 
Protector,  with  the  old  Duke  of  Norfolk,  father  to 
Surrey,  Tunstall,  the  deprived  Bishop  of  Durham, 
and  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester.  In  Mary's 
eyes  some  of  these  were  martyrs,  suffering  for  their 
fidelity  to  the  faith  for  which  she  had  herself  been 
prepared  to  go  to  the  scaffold  ;  for  others  she  felt 
the  natural  compassion  due  to  captives  who  have 
wasted  long  years  within  prison  walls  ;  and,  touched 
and  overcome  by  the  sight  of  that  motley  company, 
she  burst  into  tears. 

"  These  are  my  prisoners,"  she  said,  as  she  bent 
and  kissed  them. 

Their  day  was  come.  By  August  1 1  Gardiner 
was  reinstated  in  Winchester  House,  which  had  been 
appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  Marquis  of  North- 
ampton, now  perhaps  inhabiting  the  Bishop's  quarters 
in  the  Tower.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  Duchess 
of  Somerset,  Courtenay,  were  all  at  liberty.  Bonner 


256  Lady  Jane  Grey 

was  once  more  exercising  his  functions  as  Bishop 
of  London.  But  their  places  in  the  old  prison- 
house  were  not  left  vacant :  fresh  captives  being 
sent  to  join  those  already  there.  Report  declared 
— prematurely — that  sentence  had  been  passed  on 
Northumberland,  Huntingdon,  Gates,  and  others. 
Pembroke,  notwithstanding  the  zealous  share  he 
had  taken  in  proclaiming  Mary  Queen,  as  well  as 
Winchester  and  Darcy,  were  confined  to  their  houses. 

All  necessary  measures  had  been  taken  for  the 
security  of  the  Government.  It  was  time  to  think 
of  the  dead  boy  lying  unburied  whilst  the  struggle 
for  his  inheritance  had  been  fought  out.  In  the 
arrangements  for  her  brother's  funeral  Mary  dis- 
played a  toleration  that  must  have  gone  far  to  raise 
the  hopes  of  the  Protestant  party,  awaiting,  in 
anxiety  and  dread,  enlightenment  as  to  the  course 
the  new  ruler  would  pursue  with  regard  to  religion. 
Permitting  her  brother's  obsequies  to  be  celebrated 
by  Cranmer  according  to  the  ritual  prescribed  by  the 
reformed  Prayer-book,  she  caused  a  Requiem  Mass 
to  be  sung  for  him  in  the  Tower  in  the  presence 
of  some  hundreds  of  worshippers,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that,  according  to  Griffet,  "  this  was  not 
in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  the  Roman  Church, 
since  the  Prince  died  in  schism  and  heresy." 

It  was  the  moment  when  Mary,  the  recipient,  as 
she  told  the  French  ambassador,  of  more  graces  than 
1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  Eclaircissements,  p.  23. 


Religious  Riots  257 

any  living  Princess  ;  the  object  of  the  love  and 
devotion  of  her  subjects  ;  her  long  years  of  mis- 
fortune ended  ;  her  record  unstained,  should  have 
died.  But,  unfortunately,  five  more  years  of  life 
remained  to  her. 

The  presage  of  coming  trouble  was  not  absent  in 
the  midst  of  the  general  rejoicing,  and  the  first  notes 
of  discord  had  already  been  struck.  Emboldened  by 
the  Requiem  celebrated  in  the  Tower,  a  priest  had 
taken  courage,  and  had  said  Mass  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Bartholomew  in  the  City.  It  was  then  seen  how 
far  the  people  were  from  being  unanimous  in  in- 
cluding in  their  devotion  to  the  Queen  toleration 
for  her  religion.  <c  This  day,"  reports  a  news- 
letter of  August  n,  "an  old  priest  said  Mass  at 
St.  Bartholomew's,  but  after  that  Mass  was  done, 
the  people  would  have  pulled  him  to  pieces."1 
"  When  they  saw  him  go  up  to  the  altar,"  says 
Griffet,  "  there  was  a  great  tumult,  some  attempting 
to  throw  themselves  upon  him  and  strike  him, 
others  trying  to  prevent  this  violence,  so  that  there 
came  near  to  being  blood  shed."  2 

Scenes  of  this  nature,  with  the  open  declarations 
of  the  Protestants  that  they  would  meet  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  old  worship  with  an  armed 
resistance,  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  pass 
over  the  bodies  of  twenty  thousand  men  before  a 

1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  p.  16. 
1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  £claircisscments,  p.  25. 


Lady  jane  Grey 

single  Mass  should  be  quietly  said  in  London,  were 
warnings  of  rocks  ahead.  That  Mary  recognised 
the  gravity  of  the  situation  was  proved  by  the  fact 
that,  after  an  interview  with  the  Mayor,  she  per- 
mitted the  priest  who  had  disregarded  the  law  to 
be  put  into  prison,  although  taking  care  that  an 
opportunity  of  escape  should  shortly  be  afforded 
him.1 

A  proclamation  made  in  the  middle  of  August 
also  testified  to  some  desire  upon  the  Queen's  part, 
at  this  stage,  to  adopt  a  policy  of  conciliation.  In 
it  she  declared  that  it  was  her  will  u  that  all  men 
should  embrace  that  religion  which  all  men  knew 
she  had  of  long  time  observed,  and  meant,  God 
willing,  to  continue  the  same  ;  willing  all  men  to 
be  quiet,  and  not  call  men  the  names  of  heretick 
and  papist,  but  each  man  to  live  after  the  religion 
he  thought  best  until  further  order  were  taken 
concerning  the  same." 

Though  the  liberty  granted  was  only  provisional 
and  temporary,  there  was  nothing  in  the  proclamation 
to  foreshadow  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  and  it  was 
calculated  to  allay  any  fears  or  forebodings  disquieting 
the  minds  of  loyal  subjects. 

1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  Eclairtissements,  pp.  26,  27. 
*  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  p.  24. 


CHAPTER  XX 

*553 

Trial  and  condemnation  of  Northumberland — His  recantation — 
Final  scenes— Lady  Jane's  fate  in  the  balances — A  conversation 
with  her. 

THE  great  subject  of  interest  agitating  the 
capital,  when  the  excitement  attending  the 
Queen's  triumphal  entry  had  had  time  to  subside, 
was  the  approach-ing  trial  of  the  Duke  of  North- 
umberland and  his  principal  accomplices.  On 
August  1 8  the  great  conspirator,  with  his  son,  the 
Earl  of  Warwick,  and  the  Marquis  of  Northampton, 
were  arraigned  at  Westminster  Hall,  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,  lately  himself  a  prisoner,  presiding,  as 
High  Steward  of  England,  at  the  trial. 

Its  issue  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  If  ever  man 
deserved  to  suffer  the  penalty  for  high  treason,  that 
man  was  Northumberland.  His  brain  had  devised 
the  plot  intended  to  keep  the  Queen  out  of  the 
heritage  hers  by  birth  and  right ;  his  hand  had  done 
what  was  possible  to  execute  it.  He  had  commanded 
in  person  the  forces  arrayed  against  her,  and 
had  been  taken,  as  it  were,  red-handed.  He  must 
have  recognised  the  fact  that  any  attempt  at  a 

259 


260  Lady  Jane  Grey 

defence  would  be  hopeless.  Two  points  of  law, 
however,  he  raised  :  Could  a  man,  acting  by  warrant 
of  the  great  seal  of  England,  and  by  the  authority  of 
the  Council,  be  accused  of  high  treason  ?  And 
further,  could  he  be  judged  by  those  who,  im- 
plicated in  the  same  offence,  were  his  fellow- 
culprits  ? 

The  argument  was  quickly  disposed  of.  If,  as 
Mr.  Tytler  supposes,1  the  Duke's  intention  was  to 
appeal  to  the  sanction  of  the  great  seal  affixed  to 
Edward's  will,  the  judges  preferred  to  interpret  his 
plea,  as  most  historians  have  concurred  in  doing, 
as  referring  to  the  seal  used  during  Lady  Jane's 
short  reign  ;  and,  thus  understood,  the  authority 
of  a  usurper  could  not  be  allowed  to  exonerate 
her  father-in-law  from  the  guilt  of  rebellion.  As  to 
his  second  question,  so  long  as  those  by  whom 
he  was  to  be  judged  were  themselves  unattainted, 
they  were  not  disqualified  from  filling  their  office. 
Sentence  was  passed  without  delay,  the  Duke 
proffering  three  requests.  First,  he  asked  that 
he  might  die  the  death  of  a  noble  ;  secondly,  that 
the  Queen  would  be  gracious  to  his  children,  since 
they  had  acted  by  his  command,  and  not  of  their 
own  free  will  ;  and  thirdly,  that  two  members  of  the 
Council  Board  might  visit  him,  in  order  that  he 
might  declare  to  them  matters  concerning  the  public 
welfare. 

1  Edward  and  Mary,  vol.  ii.,  p.  224. 


Northumberland  Condemned  261 

The  trial  had  been  conducted  on  a  Friday.  The 
uncertainty  prevailing  as  to  the  condition  of  public 
sentiment  in  the  city  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact, 
that,  when  the  customary  sermon  was  to  be  preached 
at  Paul's  Cross  on  the  following  Sunday,  it  was 
considered  expedient  to  have  the  preacher  chosen  by 
the  Queen  surrounded  by  her  guards,  lest  a  tumult 
should  ensue.  The  state  of  feeling  in  the  capital  must 
have  been  curiously  mixed.  Mary  was  the  lawful 
sovereign,  and  had  been  brought  to  her  rights 
amidst  universal  rejoicing.  Northumberland  was  an 
object  of  detestation  to  the  populace.  Yet,  whilst 
the  Queen  was  undisguisedly  devoted  to  a  religion 
to  which  the  majority  of  her  subjects  were  hostile, 
the  Duke  was  regarded  as,  with  Suffolk,  the  chief 
representative  and  support  of  the  faith  they  held 
and  the  Church  as  by  law  established.  If  his  adher- 
ence to  Protestant  doctrine,  as  was  now  to  appear,  had 
been  a  matter  of  policy  rather  than  of  conviction, 
it  had  been  singularly  successful  in  imposing  upon 
the  multitude  ;  though,  according  to  the  story  which 
makes  him  observe  to  Sir  Anthony  Browne  that  he 
certainly  thought  best  of  the  old  religion,  "  but, 
seeing  a  new  one  begun,  run  dog,  run  devil,  he  would 
go  forward,"  he  had  been  at  little  pains  to  conceal 
his  lack  of  genuine  sympathy  with  innovation.1 
When  the  speech  was  made,  suspicion  of  Catholic 

1  Peerage  of   England   (1799),  vol.   ii.,   p.    406.    Quoted    in 
Strickland's  Queens  of  England, 


262  Lady  Jane  Grey 

proclivities  would  have  been  fatal  to  his  position 
and  his  schemes.  The  case  was  now  reversed.  He 
was  about  to  forfeit,  by  the  fashion  of  his  death, 
the  solitary  merit  he  had  possessed  in  the  eyes  of  a 
large  section  of  his  countrymen  ;  to  throw  off  the 
mask,  however  carelessly  it  had  been  worn  ;  and 
to  give  the  lie,  at  that  supreme  moment,  to  the 
professions  of  years. 

It  is  said  that,  in  consequence  of  the  request 
he  had  preferred  at  his  trial  that  he  might  be  visited 
by  some  members  of  the  Council,  he  was  granted  an 
interview  with  Gardiner  and  another  of  his  colleagues, 
name  unknown  ;  that  the  Bishop  of  Winchester 
subsequently  interceded  with  the  Queen  on  his 
behalf,  and  was  sanguine  of  success  ;  but  that,  in 
deference  to  the  Emperor's  advice,  Mary  decided  in 
the  end  that  the  Duke  must  die.1  To  Arundel, 
in  spite  of  the  little  encouragement  he  had  received 
at  Cambridge  to  hope  that  the  Earl  would  prove  his 
friend,  Northumberland  wrote,  begging  for  life, 
"  yea,  the  life  of  a  dog,  that  he  may  but  live  and 
kiss  the  Queen's  feet."  All  was  in  vain.  Prayers, 
supplications,  entreaties,  were  useless.  He  was  to 
die. 

Of  those  tried  together  with  him,  two  shared  his 
sentence — Sir  Thomas  Palmer  and  Sir  John  Gates. 
Monday,  August  21,  had  been  fixed  for  the  execu- 
tions, Commendone,  the  Pope's  agent,  delaying  his 
1  Lingard,  History,  vol.  v.,  pp.  390,  391.  J  Ibid.,  p.  391. 


Northumberland's  Recantation         263 

journey  to  Italy  at  Mary's  request  that  he  might  be 
present  on  the  occasion.1  For  some  unexplained 
reason,  they  were  deferred.  It  was  probably  in 
order  to  leave  Northumberland  time  to  make  his 
recantation  at  leisure  ;  for  he  had  expressed  his 
desire  to  renounce  his  errors  "  and  to  hear  Mass 
and  to  receive  the  Sacrament  according  to  the  old 
accustomed  manner."2 

The  account  of  what  followed  has  been  preserved 
in  detail.  At  nine  in  the  morning  the  altar  in  the 
chapel  was  prepared  ;  and  thither  the  Duke  was 
presently  conducted  by  Sir  John  Gage,  Constable 
of  the  Tower,  four  of  the  lesser  prisoners  being 
brought  in  by  the  Lieutenant.  Dying  men, 
three  of  them,  and  the  rest  in  jeopardy,  it  was 
a  solemn  company  there  assembled  as  the  officiating 
priest  proceeded  with  the  ancient  ritual.  At  a  given 
moment  the  service  was  interrupted,  so  that  the 
Duke  might  make  his  confession  of  faith  and 
formally  abjure  the  new  ways  he  had  followed  for 
sixteen  years,  "  the  which  is  the  only  cause  of  the 
great  plagues  and  vengeance  which  hath  light  upon 
the  whole  realm  of  England,  and  now  likewise 
worthily  fallen  upon  me  and  others  here  present  for 
our  unfaithfulness  ;  .  .  .  and  this  I  pray  you  all 
to  testify,  and  pray  for  me." 

1  Tytler,  Edward  and  Mary,  vol.  ii.,  p.  227. 
8  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  from  which  the 
following  details  of  the  execution  are  mostly  taken. 


264  Lady  Jane  Grey 

After  which,  kneeling  down,  he  asked  forgiveness 
from  all,  and  forgave  all. 

"  Amongst  others  standing  by,"  says  the  narrator 
of  the  scene,  "  were  the  Duke  of  Somerset's  sons," 
Hertford  and  his  brother,  boys  scarcely  emerged 
from  childhood  ;  watching  the  fallen  enemy  of 
their  house,  and  remembering  that  to  him  had  been 
chiefly  due  their  father's  death. 

Other  spectators  were  some  fourteen  or  fifteen 
merchants  from  the  City,  bidden  to  the  chapel 
that  they  might  witness  the  ceremony  and  perhaps 
make  report  of  the  Duke's  recantation  to  their 
fellows. 

The  news  of  what  was  going  forward  must  have 
spread  through  the  Tower,  partly  palace,  partly 
dungeon,  partly  fortress  ;  and  men  must  have 
looked  strangely  upon  one  another  as  they  heard 
that  the  leader  principally  responsible  for  all  that 
had  happened  in  the  course  of  the  last  month,  to 
whom  the  safety  of  the  Protestant  faith  had  been 
war-cry  and  watchword,  had  abjured  it  as  the 
work  of  the  devil.  Where  was  truth,  or  sincerity, 
or  pure  conviction  to  be  found  ? 

Of  Lady  Jane,  during  this  day,  there  is  but  one 
mention.  The  limelight  had  been  turned  off  her 
small  figure,  and  she  had  fallen  back  into  obscurity. 
Yet  we  hear  that,  looking  through  a  window,  she 
had  seen  her  father-in-law  led  to  the  chapel,  where 
he  was,  in  her  eyes,  to  imperil  hisv  soul.  But 


The  Duke's  Execution  265 

whether -she  had  been  made  aware  of  what  was  in 
contemplation  we  are  ignorant. 

The  final  scene  took  place  on  the  succeeding  day. 
At  nine  o'clock  the  scaffold  was  ready,  and  Sir  John 
Gates,  with  young  Lord  Warwick,  were  brought 
forth  to  receive  Communion  in  the  chapel  ("  Memo- 
randum," says  the  chronicler  again,  a  the  Duke  of 
Somerset's  sons  stood  by").  By  one  after  the  other, 
their  abjuration  had  been  made,  and  the  priest 
present  had  offered  what  comfort  he  might  to  the 
men  appointed  to  die. 

"  I  would,"  he  said,  "  ye  should  not  be  ignorant 
of  God's  mercy,  which  is  infinite.  And  let  not 
death  fear  you,  for  it  is  but  a  little  while,  ye  know, 
ended  in  one  half-hour.  What  shall  I  say  ?  I 
trust  to  God  it  shall  be  to  you  a  short  passage 
(though  somewhat  sharp)  out  of  innumerable  mis- 
eries into  a  most  pleasant  rest — which  God  grant." 

As  the  other  prisoners  were  led  out  the  Duke  and 
Sir  John  Gates  met  at  the  garden  gate.  Northumber- 
land spoke. 

"  Sir  John,"  he  said,  "  God  have  mercy  on  us, 
for  this  day  shall  end  both  our  lives.  And  I  pray 
you,  forgive  me  whatsoever  I  have  offended  ;  and 
I  forgive  you,  with  all  my  heart,  although  you  and 
your  counsel  was  a  great  occasion  thereof." 

"  Well,  my  Lord,"  was  the  reply,  "  I  forgive  you, 
as  I  would  be  forgiven.  And  yet  you  and  your 
authority  was  the  only  original  cause  of  all  together. 


266  Lady  Jane  Grey 

But  the  Lord  pardon  you,  and  I  pray  you  forgive 
me." 

So,  not  without  a  recapitulation  of  each  one's 
grievance,  they  made  obeisance,  and  the  Duke 
passed  on.  Again,  "  the  Duke  of  Somerset's  sons 
stood  thereby  " —  the  words  recur  like  a  sinister 
refrain. 

The  end  had  come.  Standing  upon  the  scaffold, 
the  Duke  put  off  his  damask  gown  ;  then,  leaning  on 
the  rail,  he  repeated  the  confession  of  faith  made  on 
the  previous  day,  begging  those  present  to  re- 
member the  old  learning,  and  thanking  God  that  He 
had  called  him  to  be  a  Christian.  With  his  own 
hands  he  knit  the  handkerchief  about  his  eyes, 
laid  him  down,  and  so  met  the  executioner's 
blow. 

Gates  followed,  with  few  words.  Sir  Thomas 
Palmer,  having  witnessed  the  ghastly  spectacle,  came 
last.  That  morning,  whilst  preparations  for  the 
executions  were  being  made,  he  had  been  walking 
in  the  Lieutenant's  garden,  observed,  says  that 
"  resident  in  the  Tower  "  in  whose  diary  so  many 
incidents  of  this  time  have  been  preserved,  to  seem 
"  more  cheerful  in  countenance  than  when  he  was 
most  at  liberty  in  his  lifetime "  ;  and  when  the 
end  was  at  hand,  he  met  it,  as  some  men  did  meet 
death  in  those  days,  with  undaunted  courage,  and 
with  a  heroism  not  altogether  unaffected  by  dramatic 
instinct. 


Sir  Thomas  Palmer's   Speech         267 

Though  apparently  implicitly  included  amongst  the 
prisoners  who  had  made  their  peace  with  the  Church, 
he  is  not  recorded  to  have  taken  any  prominent  part 
in  the  affair,  and  his  dying  speech  dealt  with  no  contro- 
versial matters,  but  with  eternal  verities  confessed 
alike  by  Catholic  and  Protestant.  At  his  trial  he  had 
denied  that  he  had  ever  borne  arms  against  the  Queen ; 
though,  charged  with  having  been  present  when  others 
did  so,  he  acknowledged  his  guilt.  He  now  passed 
that  matter  over,  with  a  brief  admission  that  his  fate 
had  been  deserved  at  God's  hands  :  "  For  I  know  it 
to  be  His  divine  ordinance  by  this  mean  to  call  me 
to  His  mercy  and  to  teach  me  to  know  myself,  what 
I  am,  and  whereto  we  are  all  subject.  I  thank  His 
merciful  goodness,  for  He  has  caused  me  to  learn 
more  in  one  little  dark  corner  in  yonder  Tower  than 
ever  I  learned  by  any  travail  in  so  many  places  as  I 
have  been."  For  there  he  had  seen  God  ;  he  had 
seen  himself ;  he  had  seen  and  known  what  the 
world  was.  "  Finally,  I  have  seen  there  what  death 
is,  how  near  hanging  over  every  man's  head,  and  yet 
how  uncertain  the  time,  and  how  unknown  to  all 
men,  and  how  little  it  is  to  be  feared.  And  why 
should  I  fear  death,  or  be  sad  therefore  ?  Have 
I  not  seen  two  die  before  mine  eyes,  yea,  and  within 
the  hearing  of  mine  ears  ?  No,  neither  the  sprink- 
ling of  the  blood,  or  the  shedding  thereof,  nor  the 
bloody  axe  itself,  shall  not  make  me  afraid." 

Taking   leave    of    all   present,    he    begged    their 


268  Lady  Jane  Grey 

prayers,  forgave  the  executioner,  and,  master  of 
himself  to  the  last,  kneeling,  laid  his  head  upon  the 
block. 

"  I  will  see  how  meet  the  block  is  for  my  neck," 
he  said,  u  I  pray  thee,  strike  me  not  yet,  for  I  have 
a  few  prayers  to  say.  And  that  done,  strike  in  God's 
name.  Good  leave  have  thou." 

So  the  scene  came  to  an  end.  The  three  rebels 
whose  life  Mary  had  taken — no  large  number — had 
paid  the  forfeit  of  their  deed.  That  night  the 
Lancaster  Herald,  a  dependant  of  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  more  faithful  to  old  ties  and 
memories  than  those  in  higher  place,  sought  the 
Queen,  and  begged  of  her  his  master's  head,  that 
he  might  give  it  sepulture.  In  God's  name,  Mary 
bade  him  take  his  lord's  whole  body  and  bury  him. 
By  a  curious  caprice  of  destiny  the  Duke  was  laid  to 
rest  in  the  Tower  at  the  side  of  Somerset.1  There, 
in  the  reconciliation  of  a  common  defeat,  the  ancient 
rivals  were  united. 

The  three  chief  victims  had  thus  paid  the  supreme 
penalty.  The  rest  of  the  participators  in  Northumber- 
land's guilt,  if  not  pardoned,  were  suffered  to  escape 
with  life.  Young  Warwick  had  shared  his  father's 
condemnation,  and,  finding  that  the  excuse  of  youth 
was  not  to  be  allowed  to  avail  in  so  grave  a  matter, 
had  contented  himself  with  begging  that,  out  of  his 

1  Peerage  of  England  (1709),  vol.  ii.,  p.  406.     Quoted  in  Miss 
Strickland's  Queens. 


Lesser  Criminals  269 

goods,  forfeited  to  the  Crown,  his  debts  might  be 
paid.  Returning  to  the  Tower,  he  had  afterwards 
followed  his  father's  example  in  abjuring  Protestant- 
ism, and  had  listened,  with  the  older  victims,  to  the 
words  addressed  by  the  priest  to  the  men  appointed 
to  die.  Whether  or  not  he  had  been  aware  that 
he  was  to  be  spared,  Mass  concluded,  he  had  been 
taken  back  to  his  lodging  and  had  not  shared  the 
Duke's  fate. 

Northampton's  defence  had  been  a  strange  one. 
He  had,  he  said,  forborne  the  execution  of  any- 
public  office  during  the  interregnum  and,  being 
intent  on  hunting  and  other  sports,  had  not  shared 
in  the  conspiracy.  The  plea  was  not  allowed  to 
stand,  but  though  he,  like  Warwick,  was  condemned, 
he  was  likewise  permitted  to  escape  with  life.  As 
Warwick's  youth  may  have  made  its  appeal  to 
Mary,  so  she  may  have  remembered  that  Northampton 
was  the  brother  of  her  dead  friend,  Katherine  Parr, 
and  have  allowed  that  memory  to  save  him. 

Lady  Jane's  fate  had  hung  in  the  balances.  By 
some  she  was  still  considered  a  menace  to  the 
stability  of  her  cousin's  throne.  Charles  V.'s  am- 
bassadors, representing  to  the  Queen  the  need  of 
proceeding  with  caution  in  matters  of  religion,  urged 
the  necessity  of  executing  punishment  upon  the  more 
guilty  of  those  who  had  striven  to  deprive  her  of 
her  crown,  clemency  being  used  towards  the  rest. 
In  which  class  was  Jane  to  be  included?  The 


270  Lady  Jane  Grey 

determination  of  that  question  would  decide  her 
fate.  At  an  interview  between  Mary  and  Simon 
Renard,  one  of  the  Emperor's  envoys,  it  was 
discussed,  the  Queen  declaring  that  she  could  not 
make  up  her  mind  to  send  Lady  Jane  to  the  scaffold  ; 
that  she  had  been  told  that,  before  her  marriage  with 
Guilford  Dudley,  she  had  been  bestowed  upon 
another  man  by  a  contrat  obligatoire,  rendering  the 
subsequent  tie  null  and  void.  Mary  drew  from 
this  hypothetical  fact  the  inference  that  her  cousin 
was  not  the  daughter-in-law  of  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland's,  adding  that  she  had  had  no 
share  in  his  undertaking,  and  that,  as  she  was 
innocent,  it  would  be  against  her  own  conscience 
to  put  her  to  death. 

Renard  demurred.  He  said,  what  was  probably 
true,  that  it  was  to  be  feared  that  the  alleged  contract 
of  marriage  had  been  invented  to  save  Lady  Jane  ; 
and  it  would  be  necessary  at  the  least  to  keep  her 
a  prisoner,  since  many  inconveniences  might  be 
expected  were  she  set  at  liberty.  To  this  Mary 
agreed,  promising  that  her  cousin  should  not  be 
liberated  without  all  precautions  necessary  to  ensure 
that  no  ill  results  would  follow.1 

This    interview    must    have    taken    place    shortly 

before  Northumberland's  death  ;  for  on  August  23 

the  Emperor,  to  whom  it  had  been  duly  reported, 

was    replying    by  a  reiteration  of  his  opinion    that 

1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  £dairrissements,  p.  55. 


Lady  Jane  in  the  Tower  271 

all  those  who  had  conspired  against  the  Queen,  as 
well  as  any  concerned  in  Edward's  death,  should  be 
chastised  without  mercy.  He  advised  that  the 
executions  should  take  place  simultaneously,  so  that 
the  pardon  of  the  less  guilty  should  follow  without 
delay.  If  Mary  was  unable  to  resolve  to  put 
"  Jeanne  de  Suffolck  "  to  death,  she  ought  at  least 
to  relegate  her  to  some  place  of  security,  where  she 
could  be  kept  under  supervision  and  rendered 
incapable  of  causing  trouble  in  the  realm. 

That  Mary  had  decided  upon  this  course  is  clear, 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Lady  Jane 
would  have  suffered  death  had  it  not  been  for 
her  father's  subsequent  conduct.  In  the  meantime, 
she  remained  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  and  on 
August  29,  eleven  days  after  the  executions  on 
Tower  Hill,  she  is  shown  to  us  in  one  of  the  rare 
pictures  left  of  her  during  the  time  of  her  captivity. 
On  that  day — a  Tuesday — the  diarist  in  the  Tower,  ad- 
mitted to  dine  at  the  same  table  as  the  royal  prisoner, 
placed  upon  record  an  account  of  the  conversation. 

Besides  Lady  Jane,  who  sat  at  the  end  of  the 
board,  there  was  present  the  narrator  himself,  one 
Partridge,1  and  his  wife — it  was  in  "  Partridge's 
house,"  or  lodging  within  the  Tower,  that  the 
guests  met — with  Lady  Jane's  gentlewoman  and 

1  Dr.  Nichols  suggests  that  Partridge  may  have  been  Queen 
Mary's  goldsmith  of  that  name,  apparently  resident  in  the  Tower 
during  the  following  year. 


272  Lady  Jane  Grey 

her  man.  Her  presence  had  been  unexpected  by 
the  diarist,  as  he  was  careful  to  explain,  excusing 
his  boldness  in  having  accepted  Partridge's  invitation 
on  the  score  that  he  had  not  been  aware  that  she 
dined  below. 

Lady  Jane  did  not  appear  anxious  to  stand  on 
her  dignity.  Desiring  guest  and  host  to  be  covered, 
she  drank  to  the  new-comer  and  made  him  welcome. 
The  conversation  turned,  naturally  enough,  upon  the 
conduct  of  public  affairs,  of  which  Lady  Jane  was 
inclined  to  take  a  sanguine  view. 

"The  Queen's  Majesty  is  a  merciful  Princess," 
she  observed.  "  I  beseech  God  she  may  long  con- 
tinue, and  send  His  merciful  grace  upon  her." 

Religious  matters  were  discussed,  Lady  Jane 
inquiring  as  to  who  had  been  the  preacher  at 
St.  Paul's  the  preceding  Sunday. 

"  I  pray  you,"  she  asked  next,  "  have  they  Mass 
in  London  ?  " 

"  Yea,  forsooth,"  was  the  answer,  "  in  some 
places." 

a  It  may  be  so,"  she  said.  "  It  is  not  so  strange 
as  the  sudden  conversion  of  the  late  Duke.  For 
who  would  have  thought  he  would  have  so  done  .p " 
negativing  at  once  and  decidedly  the  suggestion 
made  by  some  one  present  that  a  hope  of  escaping 
his  imminent  doom  and  winning  pardon  from  the 
Queen  might  supply  an  explanation  of  his  change 
of  front. 


Lady  Jane  in  the  Tower  273 

" '  Pardon  ? '  repeated  the  dead  man's  daughter- 
in-law.  c  Woe  worth  him  !  He  hath  brought  me 
and  our  stock  into  most  miserable  calamity  and 
misery  by  his  exceeding  ambition.  But  for  the 
answering  that  he  hoped  for  life  by  his  turning, 
though  other  men  be  of  that  opinion,  I  utterly  am 
not.  For  what  man  is  there  living,  I  pray  you, 
although  he  had  been  innocent,  that  would  hope 
of  life  in  that  case  ;  being  in  the  field  against  the 
Queen  in  person  as  general,  and,  after  his  taking, 
so  hated  and  evil  spoken  of  by  the  commons  ?  and 
at  his  coming  into  prison  so  wondered  at  as  the  like 
was  never  heard  by  any  man's  time  ?  Who  was 
judge  that  he  should  hope  for  pardon,  whose  life 
was  odious  to  all  men  ?  But  what  will  ye  more  ? 
Like  as  his  life  was  wicked  and  full  of  dissimulation, 
so  was  his  end  thereafter.  I  pray  God  I,  nor  no 
friend  of  mine,  die  so.  Should  I  who  [am]  young 
and  in  my  fewers  [few  years  ?]  forsake  my  faith  for 
the  love  of  life  ?  Nay,  God  forbid,  much  more  he 
should  not,  whose  fatal  course,  although  he  had 
lived  his  just  number  of  years,  could  not  have  long 
continued.  But  life  was  sweet,  it  appeared  ;  so  he 
might  have  lived,  you  will  say,  he  did  [not]  care 
how.  Indeed  the  reason  is  good,  he  that  would  have 
lived  in  chains,  to  have  had  his  life,  by  like  would 
leave  no  other  means  attempted.  But  God  be  merci- 
ful to  us,  for  He  saith,  whoso  denyeth  Him  before 
men,  He  will  not  know  in  His  Father's  Kingdom.' ' 

18 


274  Lady  Jane  Grey 

The  conviction  of  Northumberland's  daughter- 
in-law  that  his  recantation  had  not  been  a  mere 
device  designed  to  lengthen  his  days  may  be  allowed 
in  some  sort  to  weigh  in  favour  of  the  man  she 
hated  ;  and  it  is  also  fair  to  remember  that  if  his 
first  abjuration  may  be  accounted  for  by  a  lingering 
hope  that  it  might  purchase  life,  any  such  expectation 
must  have  been  abandoned  before  the  final  repetition 
of  it  upon  the  scaffold.  In  Lady  Jane's  eyes,  how- 
ever, there  seems  to  have  been  little  to  choose 
between  a  sham  apostacy  and  a  genuine  reversion 
to  his  older  creed. 

<c  With  this  and  much  like  talk  the  dinner  passed 
away,"  and  with  exchange  of  courtesies  the  little 
company  separated.  The  brief  shaft  of  light  throwing 
Lady  Jane's  figure  into  relief  fades  and  leaves  her 
once  more  in  the  shadow — a  shadow  that  was  to 
deepen  above  her  till  the  end.  It  was  early  days  of 
captivity  still.  Yet  one  discerns  something  of  the 
passionate  longing  of  the  prisoner  for  freedom  in 
her  wonder  that  life  in  chains  could  be  accounted 
worth  any  sacrifice. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

1553 

Mary's  marriage  in  question — Pole  and  Courtenay — Foreign  suitors 
— The  Prince  of  Spain  proposed  to  her — Elizabeth's  attitude — 
Lady  Jane's  letter  to  Hardinge — The  coronation — Cranmer  in 
the  Tower — Lady  Jane  attainted — Letter  to  her  father — 
Sentence  of  death — The  Spanish  match. 

TO  Mary  there  were  at  present  matters  of  more 
personal  and  pressing  moment  than  the  fate 
of  her  ill-starred  cousin.  It  was  essential  that  the 
kingdom  should  be  provided  as  quickly  as  possible 
with  an  heir  whose  title  to  the  throne  should  admit 
of  no  question.  Mary  was  no  longer  young  and 
there  was  no  time  to  lose.  The  question  in  all 
men's  minds  was  who  was  to  be  the  Queen's 
husband.  Amongst  Englishmen,  Pole,  who,  though 
a  Cardinal,  was  not  in  priest's  orders,  and  Courtenay, 
the  prisoner  of  the  Tower,  were  both  of  royal  blood, 
and  considered  in  the  light  of  possible  aspirants  to 
her  hand.  The  first,  however,  was  soon  set  aside, 
as  disqualified  by  age  and  infirmity.  Towards 
Courtenay  she  appeared  for  a  time  not  ill-disposed. 
His  unhappy  youth,  his  long  captivity,  may  have 
told  in  his  favour  in  the  eyes  of  a  woman  herself 
the  victim  of  injustice  and  misfortune.  He  was 

275 


276  Lady  Jane  Grey 

young,  not  more    than    twenty-seven,  handsome — 

called  by  Castlenau  "Fun  des  plus  beaux  entre  les 

jeunes    seigneurs    de    son    age " — and   the   Queen 

cherished  a  special   affection   for  his  mother.     He 

had  been  restored  to  the  forfeited  honours  of  his 

family,    had   been   made    Earl   of  Devonshire   and 

Knight  of  the  Bath.     Gardiner  also,  whose  opinion 

carried  weight,  was  an  advocate  of  the  match.     But 

on    his    enfranchisement    from    prison    the    young 

man   had  not   used   his  liberty  wisely.      His  head 

turned  by  the  position  already  his,  and  the  chance 

of  a   higher  one,  he  had  started  his  household  on 

a  princely  scale,  inducing  many  of  the  courtiers  to 

kneel  in  his  presence.     Follies  such  as  these  Mary 

might    have   condoned,  although    the  fact  that  she 

directed  her  cousin  to  accept  no  invitations  to  dinner 

without    her  permission  indicates  the  exercise  of  a 

supervision  somewhat  like  that  to  be  kept  over  an 

emancipated  schoolboy.     But  at  a  moment  when  he 

was  aspiring  to  the  highest  rank  to  be  enjoyed  by 

any     subject,     his     moral    misconduct    was    matter 

of  public  report  and  sufficient  to  deter  any  woman 

from  becoming  his  wife.     He  was  also  headstrong 

and    self-willed,    "  so    difficult    to   guide,"     sighed 

Noailles,    "  that    he   will   believe  nobody  ;    and    as 

one    who    has    spent    his   life   in    a   tower,    seeing 

himself    now    in    the   enjoyment   of  entire    liberty, 

cannot  abstain  from  its  delights,  having  no  fear  of 

those  things  which  may  be  placed  before  him." 


The  Queen's  Suitors  277 

To  these  causes,  rather  than  to  the  romantic 
passion  for  Elizabeth  attributed  to  Courtenay  by 
some  other  writers,  Dr.  Lingard  attributes  Mary's 
refusal  to  entertain  the  idea  of  becoming  his  wife. 
"  In  public  she  observed  that  it  was  not  for  her 
honour  to  marry  a  subject,  but  to  her  confidential 
friends  she  attributed  the  cause  to  the  immorality 
of  Courtenay."  l 

Her  two  English  suitors  disposed  of,  it  remained 
to  select  a  husband  from  amongst  foreign  princes — 
the  King  of  Denmark,  the  Prince  of  Spain,  the 
Infant  of  Portugal,  the  Prince  of  Piedmont,  being 
all  under  consideration.  A  few  months  ago  Mary 
had  been  a  negligible  quantity  in  the  marriage 
market  ;  she  had  now  become  one  of  the  most 
desirable  matches  in  Europe.  She  was  deter- 
mined to  follow  in  her  choice  the  advice  of  the 
Emperor  ;  and  the  Emperor  had  hitherto  abstained 
from  proffering  it,  contenting  himself  with  negativing 
the  candidature  of  the  son  of  the  King  of  the 
Romans.  It  was  not  until  September  20  that,  in 
answer  to  her  repeated  inquiries,  he  instructed  his 
ambassadors  to  offer  her  the  hand  of  his  son  ; 
requesting  that  the  matter  should  be  kept  secret, 
even  from  her  ministers  of  State,  until  he  had  been 
informed  whether  she  was  inclined  to  accept  his 
suggestion.2  The  contents  of  the  Emperor's  despatch 

1  Lingard,  History,  vol.  v.,  p.  393. 

'  Griffet,  Nouveaux  Eclaircissements,  p.  65. 


27  8  Lady  Jane  Grey 

must  have  been  communicated  to  the  Queen  im- 
mediately before  her  coronation  on  September  30  ; 
but  not  being  as  yet  made  public  there  was  nothing 
to  interfere  with  the  loyal  rejoicings  of  the  people, 
to  whom  the  very  idea  of  the  Spanish  match  would 
have  been  abhorrent. 

Meantime  the  attitude  of  Elizabeth  was  increasing 
the  desire  of  the  Catholic  party  that  a  direct  heir 
should  be  born  to  the  Catholic  Queen.  The  nation 
was  insensibly  dividing  itself  into  two  camps,  and 
the  Protestant  and  Catholic  parties  eyed  one  another 
with  suspicion,  each  looking  to  the  sister  who  shared 
its  faith  for  support.  The  enthusiasm  displayed 
towards  Elizabeth  by  a  section  of  the  people  was  not 
conducive  to  the  continuance  of  affectionate  rela- 
tions between  the  Queen  and  the  next  heir  to  the 
throne,  Pope  Julius  describing  the  younger  sister 
as  being  in  the  heart  and  mouth  of  every  one. 
Elizabeth  was  in  a  position  of  no  little  difficulty. 
She  desired  to  continue  on  good  terms  with  the 
Queen  ;  she  was  not  willing  to  relinquish  her  chief 
title  to  honour  in  Protestant  eyes  ;  and  it  is  possible 
that  genuine  religious  sentiment,  a  sincere  preference 
for  the  creed  she  professed,  may  have  added  to  her 
embarrassment.  It  may  have  been  due  to  conviction 
that  she  declined  to  bow  to  her  sister's  wishes  by 
attending  Mass,  refusing  so  much  as  to  be  present 
at  the  ceremonial  which  created  Courtenay  Earl 
of  Devonshire.  It  was  satisfactory  to  know  that 


Mary  and  Elizabeth  279 

Protestant  England  looked  on  and  applauded.  It 
was  less  pleasant  to  hear  that  some  of  the  Queen's 
hot-headed  friends,  interpreting  her  refusal  as  an  act 
of  disrespect  to  their  mistress,  had  demanded — 
though  vainly — her  arrest  ;  and  though  on  Sep- 
tember 6  Noailles  reported  to  his  master  that  on 
the  previous  Saturday  and  Sunday  the  Princess  had 
proved  deaf  to  the  arguments  of  preachers  and  the 
solicitations  of  Councillors,  and  had  gone  so  far  as  to 
make  a  rude  reply  to  the  last,  she  suddenly  changed 
her  tactics,  fell  on  her  knees,  weeping,  before  Mary, 
and  begged  that  books  and  teachers  might  be  supplied 
to  her,  so  that  she  might  perhaps  see  cause  to  alter 
the  faith  in  which  she  had  been  brought  up.  The 
expectation  seems  to  have  been  promptly  realised. 
On  September  8  she  accompanied  the  Queen  to 
Mass,  and,  expressing  an  intention  of  establishing  a 
chapel  in  her  house,  wrote  to  the  Emperor  to 
ask  permission  to  purchase  the  ornaments  for  it 
in  Brussels. 

It  was  a  season  of  sudden  conversions.  Elizabeth 
was  not  the  only  person  who  saw  the  wisdom  of 
conforming  in  appearance  or  in  sincerity  to  the 
standard  set  up  by  the  Queen.  Hardinge,  a  chaplain 
of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk's — he  must  have  succeeded 
to  the  post  of  the  worthy  Haddon — had  recognized 
his  errors  ;  and  it  is  believed  that  to  him  a  letter 
of  Lady  Jane's — though  signed  with  her  unmarried 
name — was  addressed.  Printed  in  English,  and 


280  Lady  Jane  Grey 

abroad,  perhaps  through  the  instrumentality  of  her 
former  tutor,  Aylmer,  it  is  an  epistle  of  expostulation, 
reproof,  and  warning,  couched  in  the  violent  language 
of  the  time.  To  her  "  noble  friend,  newly  fallen 
from  the  truth  "  she  writes,  marvelling  at  him,  and 
lamenting  the  case  of  one  who,  once  the  lively 
member  of  Christ,  was  now  the  deformed  imp  of 
the  devil,  and  from  the  temple  of  God  was  become 
the  kennel  of  Satan — with  much  more  in  the  same 
strain.  It  has  not  been  recorded  what  effect,  if  any, 
the  missive  produced  upon  the  delinquent  to  whom 
it  was  addressed. 

Elizabeth,  for  her  part,  had  effectually  made 
her  peace  with  her  sister.  The  coronation,  on 
October  10,  found  their  relations  restored  to  a 
pleasant  footing,  and  Elizabeth's  proper  place  at 
the  ceremony  was  assured  to  her.  To  Mary,  a  sad 
and  lonely  woman,  the  reconciliation  must  have  been 
welcome.  To  Elizabeth  the  material  advantages 
of  standing  on  terms  of  affection  with  the  Queen 
will  have  appealed  more  strongly  than  motives 
of  sentiment ;  and  that  her  attitude  was  surmised 
by  those  about  her  would  seem  to  be  shown  by 
a  curious  incident  reported  in  the  despatches  of  the 
imperial  ambassador. 

As  the  younger  sister  bore  the  crown  to  be  placed 
upon  Mary's  head,  she  complained  to  M.  de  Noailles, 
who  stood  near,  of  its  weight.  It  was  heavy,  she 
said,  and  she  was  weary. 


The  Coronation  281 

The  Frenchman  replied  with  a  flippant  jest, 
overheard  by  Charles's  ambassador,  though  Noailles 
himself,  perhaps  convicted  of  indiscretion,  makes 
no  mention  of  it  in  his  account  of  the  day's  pro- 
ceedings. Let  Elizabeth  have  patience,  he  replied. 
When  the  crown  should  shortly  be  upon  her  own 
head  it  would  appear  lighter.1 

Outwardly  all  was  as  it  should  be.  Mary  held 
her  sister's  hand  in  an  affectionate  clasp,  assigning 
to  her  the  place  of  honour  next  her  own  at  the 
ensuing  banquet,  and  court  and  nation  looked  on 
and  were  edified. 

Gardiner,  now  not  only  Bishop  of  Winchester 
but  Lord  Chancellor,  had  performed  the  rites  of  the 
coronation,  in  the  absence  of  the  Archbishops,  both 
in  confinement.  The  Tower  had  been  once  more 
opening  its  hospitable  doors,  and  a  fortnight  earlier 
its  resident  diarist  had  noted  Cranmer's  arrival. 
"  Item,  the  Bishop  of  Canterbury  was  brought 
into  the  Tower  as  prisoner,  and  lodged  in  the 
Tower  over  the  gate  anenst  the  water-gate,  where 
the  Duke  of  Northumberland  lay  before  his  death." 

Nor  was  Cranmer  the  only  churchman  to  find 
a  lodging  there.  Doctor  Ridley  had  preceded 
him  to  the  universal  prison-house,  and  on  the 
same  day  that  the  Archbishop  took  up  his  residence 
in  it  "  Master  Latimer  was  brought  to  the  Tower 
prisoner  ;  who  at  his  coming  said  to  one  Rutter, 
1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  £clairtissements,  p.  60. 


282  Lady  Jane  Grey 

a  warder  there,  l  What,  my  old  friend,  how  do  you  ? 
I  am  now  come  to  be  your  neighbour  again,'  and 
was  lodged  in  the  garden  in  Sir  Thomas  Palmer's 
lodging." 

Ominous  quarters  both  !  It  was  a  day  when 
the  great  fortress  received,  and  discharged,  many 
guests. 

If  Cranmer  had  drawn  his  imprisonment  upon 
himself,  the  imprudence  to  which  it  was  due  did 
him  honour.  He  had  at  first  been  treated  by 
Mary  with  an  indulgence  the  more  singular  when 
it  is  remembered  that  he  had  been  the  instru- 
ment of  her  mother's  divorce,  and  a  strenuous 
supporter  of  Lady  Jane.  Prudence  would  have 
dictated  the  adoption  on  his  part  of  a  policy  of 
silence  ;  but,  confined  to  his  house  at  Lambeth, 
and  regarding  with  the  bitterness  inevitable  in  a 
man  of  his  convictions  the  steps  in  course  of  being 
taken  for  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  worship, 
the  news  that  Mass  had  been  once  again  celebrated 
in  Canterbury  Cathedral,  and  that  it  was  commonly 
reported  that  it  had  been  done  with  his  consent 
and  connivance,  was  too  much  for  him.  Feeling 
the  need  of  clearing  himself  from  what  he  regarded 
as  a  damaging  imputation,  he  wrote  and  spread 
abroad  a  declaration  of  his  faith  and  opinions, 
adding  to  it  a  violent  attack  upon  the  rites  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  By  Mary  and  her  advisers 
the  challenge  could  scarcely  have  been  ignored  ; 


Occupants  of  the  Tower  283 

and  it  was  this  document,  read  to  the  people  in 
the  streets,  which  was  the  cause  of  the  Archbishop 
being  called  before  the  Council  and  committed  to 
the  Tower  on  a  charge  of  treason  accompanied  by 
the  spreading  abroad  of  seditious  libels.1 

The  Tower  continued  to  be,  in  some  sort, 
the  centre  of  all  that  was  going  forward.  On 
September  27,  two  days  before  the  coronation, 
Mary  had  again  visited  the  fortress  whither  she 
had  so  nearly  escaped  being  brought  in  quite  another 
character  and  guise.  Elizabeth  came  with  her,  and 
she  was  attended  by  the  whole  Council — -just  as  they 
had,  not  three  months  before,  attended  upon  Jane, 
the  innocent  usurper.  And  somewhere  in  the 
great  dark  building  the  little  Twelfth-night  Queen 
must  have  listened  to  the  pealing  of  the  joy- bells 
and  to  the  acclamations  of  the  people  who  had 
kept  so  ominous  a  silence  when  she  herself  had 
made  her  entry.  Perhaps  young  Guilford  Dudley 
too,  who  a  week  or  two  before  had  been  accorded 
"  the  liberty  of  the  leads  on  Beacham's  Tower," 
may  have  stood  above,  catching  a  glimpse  of  the 
show,  and  remembering  the  day  when  he  and  his 
wife  had  their  boy-and-girl  quarrel,  because  she 
would  not  make  him  a  King. 

The  two  questions  of  the  hour  were  those 
relating  to  the  Queen's  marriage  and  to  matters 
of  religion.  When  Parliament  met  on  October  5, 

1  Lingard,  History,  vol.  v.,  p.  401. 


284  Lady  Jane  Grey 

the  news  of  the  Spanish  match  had  not  been  an- 
nounced, and  the  bills  of  chief  interest  passed  were 
one  dealing  with  the  important  point  of  the  validity 
of  Katherine  of  Aragon's  marriage,  and  a  second, 
which,  avoiding  any  discussion  of  the  Papal 
supremacy,  the  only  thoroughly  unpopular  article 
of  the  Catholic  creed,  cancelled  recent  legislation 
on  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  restored  the  ritual 
in  use  during  the  last  year  of  Henry's  reign.  The 
other  important  measure  carried  in  this  session  was 
the  attainder  of  Cranmer,  Lady  Jane  and  her 
husband,  and  Sir  Ambrose  Dudley. 

So  far  as  Lady  Jane  was  concerned  the  step  was 
purely  formal,  intended  to  serve  as  a  warning  to 
her  friends,  and  it  was  understood  on  all  hands  that 
a  pardon  would  be  granted  to  the  guiltless  figure- 
head of  the  conspiracy.  Yet  to  a  nervous  child, 
not  yet  seventeen,  there  may  well  have  been  some- 
thing terrifying  in  the  sentence  hanging  over  her, 
and  it  seems  to  have  been  about  this  time  that  she 
addressed  a  letter  to  her  father  which  could  scarcely 
have  been  otherwise  conceived  had  she  expected  in 
truth  to  suffer  the  penalty  due  to  treason. 

"  If  I  may  without  offence  rejoice  in  mine  own 
mishap,"  she  wrote,  "  mcseems  in  this  I  may 
account  myself  blessed,  that  washing  mine  hands 
with  the  innocency  of  my  fact,  my  guiltless  blood 
may  cry  before  the  Lord,  mercy,  mercy  to  the 
innocent.  And  yet  I  must  acknowledge  that  being 


, 


Lady  Jane's  Trial  and  Sentence       285 

constrained,  and,  as  you  wot  well  enough,  continually 
assailed,  in  taking  upon  me  I  seemed  to  consent,  and 
therein  offended  the  Queen  and  her  laws,  yet  do  I 
assuredly  trust  that  this  mine  offence  towards  God 
is  much  the  less,  in  that  being  in  so  royal  an  estate 
as  1  was,  mine  enforced  honour  never  agreed  with 
mine  innocent  heart."  l 

The  trial  was  held  on  November  13,  on  which 
day  Cranmer,  with  Guilford,  and  his  brother,  and 
Lady  Jane,  were  all  conducted  on  foot  to  the 
Guildhall  to  answer  the  charge  of  treason. 

The  Archbishop  led  the  way,  followed  by  young 
Dudley.  After  them  came  Lady  Jane,  a  childish 
figure  of  woe,  dressed  in  black,  with  a  French  hood, 
also  black,  a  book  bound  in  black  velvet  hanging  at 
her  side,  and  another  in  her  hand. 

Her  condemnation  was  a  foregone  conclusion, 
and,  pleading  guilty,  she  was  sentenced  to  death, 
by  the  axe  or  by  fire,  according  to  the  old  brutal 
law  dealing  with  a  woman  convicted  of  treason. 
As  she  returned  to  the  Tower  a  demonstration  took 
place  in  her  honour,  not  unlikely  to  be  productive 
of  some  uneasiness  to  those  in  power,  and  little 
calculated  to  serve  her  cause. 

The  London  populace  were  more  favourably 
disposed  towards  her  in  misfortune,  than  in  her 
brief  period  of  prosperity.  The  sight  of  the 
forlorn  pair,  still  no  more  than  boy  and  girl, 

1  Speed's  Chronicle. 


286  Lady  Jane  Grey 

touched  and  moved  the  multitude,  and  crowds 
accompanied  them  to  their  place  of  captivity.  It 
is  said  that  this  was  the  solitary  occasion  upon 
which  she  and  Guilford  Dudley  met  during  their 
imprisonment. 

Another  cause,  besides  simple  pity,  was  perhaps 
responsible  for  the  tenderness  displayed  towards 
the  Queen's  rival.  A  week  or  two  before  the  trial 
the  news  of  the  Spanish  match  had  been  made 
known  to  the  public,  and  may  have  had  the  effect 
of  suggesting  doubts  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the 
enthusiastic  welcome  given  to  Mary.  At  the 
beginning  of  November  the  affair  had  been  un- 
decided, and  Gardiner  was  telling  the  Emperor's 
envoy  candidly  that,  if  the  Queen  asked  his  advice, 
he  would  counsel  her  to  choose  an  Englishman  for 
her  husband.  The  nation,  he  added,  was  deeply 
prejudiced  against  foreign  domination,  especially  in 
the  case  of  Spaniards,  and  the  proposed  union 
would  also  produce  war  with  France. 

Mary's  mind,  however,  was  made  up,  nor  had 
she  any  intention  of  being  swayed  by  Gardiner's 
advice.  On  the  night  of  October  30  she  took 
the  singular  step  of  summoning  the  ambassador, 
Simon  Renard,  to  her  apartment ;  when,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  and  after  re- 
peating on  her  knees  the  Veni  Creator •,  she  gave 
him  her  promise  to  wed  the  Prince  of  Spain.  In 
the  face  of  the  curious  determination  thus  shown 


The  Spanish  Match  287 

to  bind  herself  by  a  contract  irrevocable  in  her  own 
eyes,  it  is  strange  to  find  historians  attributing  to 
her  a  continued  leaning  towards  Courtenay. 

When  the  fact  got  abroad  that  the  Emperor's 
son  was  destined  to  become  the  Queen's  husband, 
London  thrilled  with  indignation  ;  whilst  Parliament 
made  its  sentiments  plain  by  means  of  a  deputation 
which,  in  an  address  containing  an  entreaty  that 
she  would  marry,  expressed  a  hope  that  her  choice 
would  fall  upon  an  Englishman.  But  Mary  was 
a  Tudor.  Dispensing  with  the  customary  medium 
of  the  Chancellor,  she  gave  her  reply  in  person. 
Thanking  the  petitioners  for  their  zeal,  she  declared 
herself  disposed  to  act  upon  their  advice  and  to 
take  a  husband.  It  was,  however,  for  herself  alone 
to  select  one,  according  to  her  inclination,  and  for 
the  good  of  her  kingdom. 

Simon  Renard,  reporting  the  scene,  observed  that 
her  speech  had  been  applauded  by  the  nobles  present, 
Arundel  informing  the  Chancellor  in  jest  that  he 
had  been  deprived  of  his  office,  since  the  Queen 
had  undertaken  the  functions  belonging  to  it. 
In  the  pleasantry  the  Emperor's  envoy  detected  a 
warning  that  should  Gardiner  continue  his  opposition 
to  the  match  he  would  not  long  retain  his  present 
post.1 

The  Bishop  yielded.  He  may  have  agreed  with 
Renard.  At  all  events,  the  Queen  being  determined, 

1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  £claircissements,  pp.  125-6. 


288  Lady  Jane  Grey 

and  recognising  that  he  was  unable  to  deter  her 
from  the  measure  upon  which  she  had  decided, 
he  took  the  prudent  step  of  putting  himself  on  her 
side.  His  opposition  removed,  Renard  was  able 
to  inform  his  master,  on  December  17,  that  Mary 
had  received  him  in  open  daylight,  had  informed 
him  that  the  necessity  for  secrecy  was  at  an  end, 
and  that  she  regarded  her  marriage  as  a  thing 
definitely  and  irrevocably  fixed.1 

1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  Eclair cissements,  p.  127. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
1553—1554 

Discontent  at  the  Spanish  match — Insurrections  in  the  country — 
Courtenay  and  Elizabeth — Suffolk  a  rebel — General  failure  of 
the  insurgents — Wyatt's  success — Marches  to  London — Mary's 
conduct — Apprehensions  in  London,  and  at  the  palace — The 
fight — Wyatt  a  prisoner — Taken  to  the  Tower. 

WHEN  the  year  1553  drew  towards  its  close 
there  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  any 
catastrophe  was  at  hand.  The  crisis  appeared  to 
be  past  and  no  further  danger  to  be  apprehended. 
Northumberland  and  his  principal  accomplices  had 
paid  the  penalty  of  their  treason.  Suffolk,  with 
lesser  criminals,  had  been  allowed  to  escape  it ;  the 
rest  of  the  confederates  had  been  practically  par- 
doned. If  some  were  still  in  confinement  it  was 
understood  to  be  without  danger  to  life  or  limb. 
In  the  Tower  Lady  Jane  and  her  husband  lay 
formally  under  sentence  of  death,  but  the  con- 
ditions of  their  captivity  had  been  lightened  ;  on 
December  1 8  Lady  Jane  was  accorded  "  the  liberty 
of  the  Tower,"  and  was  permitted  to  walk  in  the 
Queen's  garden  and  on  the  hill  ;  Guilford  and 
his  brother — Elizabeth's  Leicester — were  allowed 
the  liberty  of  the  leads  in  the  Bell  Tower.  Both 

"89 


290  Lady  Jane  Grey 

Northampton  and  young  Warwick — who  did  not 
long  survive  his  enfranchisement — had  been  released. 
No  further  chastisement  seemed  likely  to  be  in- 
flicted in  expiation  of  the  late  attempt  to  keep  Mary 
out  of  her  rights. 

Yet  discontent  was  on  the  increase.  As  early  as 
November  steps  had  been  taken  to  induce  Courtenay 
to  head  a  new  conspiracy.  He  was  timid  and 
faint-hearted,  and  urged  delay,  and  nothing  had, 
so  far,  come  of  it.  It  would  be  well,  he  said,  ad- 
vocating a  policy  of  procrastination,  to  wait  to  be 
certain  that  the  Queen  was  determined  upon  the 
Spanish  match  before  taking  hazardous  measures  to 
oppose  it.1 

Thus  Christmas  had  found  the  country  ostensibly 
at  peace,  and  the  prisoners  in  the  Tower  with  no 
reason  to  fear  any  change  for  the  worse  in  their 
condition.  On  the  following  day  the  thunder 
of  the  cannon  discharged  as  a  welcome  to  the 
Emperor's  ambassadors  sounded  in  their  ears,  and 
was,  though  they  were  ignorant  of  it,  the  prelude 
of  their  destruction.  The  arrival  of  envoys  ex- 
pressly charged  with  the  marriage  negotiations  put 
the  matter  beyond  doubt ;  nor  was  England  in  a  mood 
to  submit  passively  to  a  union  it  hated  and  feared. 

By  January  2  the  Counts  of  Egmont  and  Laing 
and  the  Sieur  de  Corriers  had  reached  the  capital  ; 
landing  at  the  Tower,  where  they  were  greeted 

1  Lingard,  History,  vol.  v.,  p.  411. 


The  Spanish  Match  291 

with  a  salute  from  the  guns,  and  met  by  the  Earl 
of  Devonshire,  who  escorted  them  through  the 
City.  "  The  people,  nothing  rejoicing,  held  down 
their  heads  sorrowfully."  When  on  the  previous 
day  the  retinue  of  the  Spanish  envoys  had  ridden 
through  the  town,  more  forcible  expression  had  been 
given  to  public  opinion,  and  they  had  been  pelted 
with  snowballs.1 

Matters  were  pressed  quickly  on.  By  January  13 
the  formal  announcement  of  the  unpopular  arrange- 
ment, with  its  provisions,  was  made  by  Gardiner  in 
the  Presence-chamber  at  Westminster  to  the  lords 
and  nobles  there  assembled  ;  hope  could  no  longer 
be  entertained  that  the  Queen  would  be  otherwise 
persuaded.  "  These  news,"  adds  the  Tower  diarist, 
"  although  they  were  not  unknown  to  many  and 
very  much  disliked,  yet  being  now  in  this  wise 
pronounced,  was  not  only  credited,  but  also  heavily 
taken  of  sundry  men  ;  yea,  and  almost  each  man 
was  abashed,  looking  daily  for  worse  matters  to 
grow  shortly  after." 

They  did  not  look  in  vain.  The  unpopularity  of 
the  Spanish  match  was  the  direct  cause  of  the 
insurrections  which  soon  broke  out.  Indirectly  it 
was  the  cause  of  the  death  of  Lady  Jane  Grey. 

Wild  tales  were  afloat,  rousing  the  passions  of  the 
angry   people  to   fever-heat.      Some    reports   stated 
that   Edward   was   still   alive  ;    others    asserted  that 
1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  p.  34, 


292  Lady  Jane  Grey 

the  tower  and  the  forts  were  to  be  seized  and  held 
by  an  imperialist  army  ;  abuse  of  every  kind  was 
directed  against  the  Prince  of  Spain  and  his  nation. 
Mary  was  said  to  have  given  her  pledge  that  she 
would  marry  no  foreigner,  and  by  the  breach  of 
this  promise  she  was  declared  to  have  forfeited  the 
crown.  Fresh  schemes  were  set  on  foot  for  a 
rising  in  the  spring.  It  does  not  appear  that  the 
substitution  of  Lady  Jane  for  her  cousin  was  again 
generally  contemplated.  That  plan  had  resulted 
in  so  complete  a  failure  that  it  had  probably  been 
tacitly  admitted  that  the  arrangement  would  not 
work.  But  the  eyes  of  many  were  turning  towards 
Elizabeth.  She  was  to  wed  Courtenay,  and  they 
were  jointly  to  occupy  the  throne.  The  two 
principally  concerned  were  not  likely  to  have  refused 
to  fall  in  with  the  project  had  it  seemed  to  offer  a  fair 
chance  of  success,  and  France  was  in  favour  of  it. 

"  By  what  I  hear,"  wrote  Noailles,  "  it  will  be 
by  my  Lord  Courtenay's  own  fault  if  he  does  not 
marry  her,  and  she  does  not  follow  him  to  Devon- 
shire,"— the  selected  centre  of  operations — "  but  the 
misfortune  is  that  the  said  Courtenay  is  in  such 
fear  that  he  dares  undertake  nothing.  I  see  no 
reason  that  prevents  him  save  lack  of  heart." 

Courtenay  was  in  truth  not  the  stuff  of  which 
conductors  of  revolutions  are  made.  Gratitude 
and  loyalty  would  not  have  availed  to  keep 
him  true  to  Mary,  and  in  able  hands  he  might 


The  Country  in  Rebellion  293 

have  become  the  instrument  of  a  rebellion.  But 
Gardiner  found  no  difficulty  in  so  playing  on  his 
apprehensions  as  to  lead  him  to  divulge  the  plots 
that  were  on  foot  ;  and  his  revelations,  or  betrayals, 
whichever  they  are  to  be  called,  precipitated  the 
action  of  the  conspirators.  If  their  enterprise  was 
to  be  attempted,  no  time  must  be  lost.1 

On  January  20  it  became  known  that  Devonshire 
was  in  arms,  "  resisting  the  King  of  Spain's  coming," 
and  that  Exeter  was  in  the  hands  of  the  insurgents. 
By  the  2 5th  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  with  his  two 
brothers,  Lord  John  and  Lord  Leonard  Grey,  had 
fled  from  his  house  at  Sheen,  and  gone  northwards 
to  rouse  his  Warwickshire  tenants  to  insurrection. 
It  was  currently  reported  that  he  had  narrowly 
escaped  being  detained,  a  messenger  from  the  Queen 
having  arrived  as  he  was  on  the  point  of  starting, 
with  orders  that  he  should  repair  to  Court. 

"  Marry,"  said  the  Duke,  "  I  was  coming  to 
her  Grace.  Ye  may  see  I  am  booted  and  spurred 
ready  to  ride,  and  I  will  but  break  my  fast  and  go." 

Bestowing  a  present  upon  the  messenger,  he  gave 
him  drink,  and  himself  departed,  no  one  then  knew 
whither. 

That  same  day  tidings  had  reached  the  Council 

that  Kent  had  risen,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  at  its  head, 

with   Culpepper,   Cobham,   and  others,  alleging,   as 

their  sole  motives,  resistance  to  the  Prince  of  Spain, 

1  Griffet,  Nouveaux  £claircissements,  p.  118. 


294  Lady  Jane  Grey 

and  the  removal  of  certain  lords  from  the  Council 
Board.  Sir  John  Crofts  had  proceeded  to  Wales 
to  call  upon  it  to  join  the  insurrectionary  movement. 

The  country  being  thus  in  a  turmoil  the  two 
persons  who  should  have  taken  the  lead  and 
upon  whom  much  of  the  success  of  the  insurgents 
depended  were  playing  a  cautious  game.  Courtenay 
was  at  Court,  and  Elizabeth  remained  at  Ashridge 
to  watch  the  event,  no  doubt  prepared  to  shape 
her  course  accordingly.  A  letter  addressed  to 
her  by  her  partisans,  counselling  her  withdrawal 
to  Dunnington,  as  to  a  place  of  greater  safety,  had 
been  intercepted  by  the  authorities  ;  and  she  had 
received  an  invitation,  or  command,  to  join  her  sister 
at  St  James's,  where,  it  was  significantly  added,  she 
would  be  more  secure  than  either  at  Ashridge  or 
Dunnington.  On  the  score  of  ill-health  she 
disobeyed  the  summons,  fortifying  the  house,  and 
assembling  around  it  some  numbers  of  armed 
retainers. 

The  hopes  built  by  the  insurgents  upon  the  general 
discontent  throughout  the  country  were  doomed  to 
disappointment.  It  was  one  thing  to  disapprove  of 
the  Queen's  choice  ;  it  was  quite  another  to  take 
up  arms  against  her.  Devonshire  proved  cold  ; 
most  of  the  leaders  there  were  seized,  or  compelled 
to  make  their  escape  to  France  ;  Crofts  had  been 
pursued  to  Wales,  and  was  arrested  before  he  had 
time  to  rally  any  support  in  the  principality. 


iFroni  a  photo  by  Emery  Walker  after  a  painting  by  Joannes  Corvus  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 
HENRY   GREY,    DUKE  OF  SUFFOLK,    K.G. 


The  Duke  of  Suffolk  Arrested         295 

Suffolk  had  done  no  better  in  the  Midlands. 
Authorities  are  divided  as  to  his  intentions.  By 
Dr.  Lingard  it  is  considered  uncertain  whether 
he  meant  to  press  Elizabeth's  claims  or  to  revive 
those  of  his  daughter.  With  either  upon  the 
throne  the  dominance  of  the  Protestant  religion 
would  have  been  ensured,  and,  unlike  Northumber- 
land, Suffolk  was  sincere  and  honest  in  his  attachment 
to  the  principles  of  the  Reformation.  Other  writers, 
however,  assert  categorically  that  he  caused  Lady 
Jane  to  be  proclaimed  at  his  halting- places  as  he 
went  north  ;  and  the  sequel  seems  to  make  it 
probable  that  she  had  been  once  more  forced  into 
a  position  of  dangerous  prominence. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  exact  nature  of 
the  scheme  he  propounded,  the  country  made  no 
response  to  his  appeal  ;  after  a  skirmish  near  Coventry 
he  gave  up  hopes  of  any  immediate  success,  dis- 
banded his  followers,  and,  betrayed  by  a  tenant 
upon  whose  fidelity  he  had  believed  he  could  count, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  those  in  pursuit  of  him.  By 
February  10  he  had  gone  to  swell  the  numbers 
of  the  prisoners  in  the  Tower. 

The  rising  in  Kent  had  alone  answered  in  any 
degree  to  the  expectations  of  its  promoters. 
Drawn  into  the  conspiracy,  if  his  own  assertions 
are  to  be  credited,  by  Courtenay,  Wyatt  had 
become  the  most  conspicuous  leader  of  the  in- 
surrection known  by  his  name.  He  was  well 


296  Lady  Jane  Grey 

fitted  for  the  post.  Brave,  skilful,  and  secret,  he 
was,  says  Noailles,  "  un  gentilhomme  Je  plus  vaillant 
et  assure  que  j'ai  jamais  ou'i  parler"  ;  and  whether 
or  not  he  had  been  deserted  by  the  man  to  whom 
it  was  due  that  he  had  taken  up  arms,  he  was 
not  disposed  to  submit  to  defeat  without  a  struggle. 
Fixing  his  headquarters  at  Rochester,  he  had 
gathered  together  a  body  of  some  fifteen  thousand 
men,  and  was  there  found  by  the  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
sent  at  the  head  of  the  Queen's  forces  against  him. 
The  utmost  enthusiasm  prevailed  amongst  the 
insurgents,  and  when  a  herald  arrived  in  Rochester 
commissioned  by  the  Duke  to  proclaim  a  pardon 
for  all  who  would  consent  to  lay  down  arms,  "  each 
man  cried  that  they  had  done  nothing  wherefore 
they  should  need  any  pardon,  and  that  quarrel 
which  they  took  they  would  die  and  live  in  it." l 
Sir  George  Harper  was  in  fact  the  sole  rebel  who 
accepted  the  proffered  boon. 

Worse  was  to  follow.  At  the  first  encounter 
of  the  royal  troops  with  the  Kentish  men  Captain 
Bret,  leading  five  hundred  Londoners,  went  over 
to  the  rebels,  explaining  in  a  spirited  speech 
the  grounds  for  his  desertion,  the  miseries  which 
might  be  expected  to  befall  the  nation  should  the 
Spaniards  bear  rule  over  it,  and  expressing  his 
determination  to  spend  his  blood  "  in  the  quarrel 
of  this  worthy  captain,  Master  Wyatt."  2 
1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  p.  38  et  seq.  -  Ibid, 


Wyatt's  Successes  297 

It  was  an  ominous  beginning  to  the  struggle, 
and  at  the  applause  greeting  Bret's  announcement, 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  and 
Jerningham,  Captain  of  the  Guard,  fled.  Wyatt, 
taking  instant  advantage  of  the  situation,  rode 
in  amongst  the  Queen's  troops,  crying  out  that 
any  who  desired  to  join  him  should  be  welcome 
and  that  those  who  wished  might  depart. 

Most  of  the  men  accepted  the  alternative  of 
throwing  in  their  lot  with  Wyatt  and  his  company, 
leaving  their  leaders  to  return  without  them  to 
London.  "  Ye  should  have  seen,"  adds  the  diarist, 
from  whom  these  details  and  many  others  of  this 
episode  are  taken,  "  some  of  the  Guard  come  home, 
their  coats  turned,  all  ruined,  without  arrows  or 
string  in  their  bow,  or  sword,  in  very  strange  wise  ; 
which  discomfiture,  like  as  it  was  very  heart-sore 
and  displeasing  to  the  Queen  and  Council,  even  so 
it  was  almost  no  less  joyous  to  the  Londoners  and 
most  part  of  others." 

With  the  capital  in  this  temper,  the  juncture 
was  a  critical  one.  Wyatt  was  marching  on  London, 
and  who  could  say  what  reception  he  would  meet 
with  at  the  hands  of  the  discontented  populace? 
The  fact  that  he  was  encountered  at  Deptford  by  a 
deputation  from  the  Council,  sent  to  inquire  into  his 
demands,  is  proof  of  the  apprehensions  entertained. 
The  interview  did  not  end  amicably.  Flushed 
with  victory,  Wyatt  was  not  disposed  to  be  moderate. 


298  Lady  Jane  Grey 

To  Sir  Edward  Hastings,  who  asked  the  reason  why, 
calling  himself  a  true  subject,  he  played  the  part  of 
a  traitor,  he  answered  boldly  that  he  had  assembled 
the  people  to  defend  the  realm  from  the  danger  of 
being  overrun  by  strangers,  a  result  which  must 
follow  from  the  proposed  marriage  of  the  Queen. 

Hastings  temporised.  No  stranger  was  yet  come 
who  need  be  suspected.  Therefore,  if  this  was 
their  only  quarrel,  the  Queen  would  be  content 
they  should  be  heard. 

"  To  that  I  yield,"  returned  Wyatt  warily,  "  but 
for  my  further  surety  I  would  rather  be  trusted 
than  trust." 

In  carrying  out  this  principle  of  caution  it  was 
reported  that  he  had  pressed  his  demand  for  con- 
fidence so  far  as  to  require  that  the  custody  of 
the  Tower,  and  the  Queen's  person  within  it, 
should  be  conceded  to  him.  If  this  was  the  case, 
he  can  scarcely  have  felt  much  surprise  that  the 
negotiations  were  brought  to  an  abrupt  conclusion, 
Hastings  replying  hotly  that  before  his  traitorous 
conditions  should  be  granted,  Wyatt  and  twenty 
thousand  with  him  should  die.  And  thus  the 
conference  ended.1 

London  was   in   a   ferment.       Mayor,    aldermen, 

and   many   of  the   citizens   went   about   in   armour, 

"  the  lawyers  pleaded  their  causes  in  harness,"  and 

when  Dr.  Weston  said  Mass  before  the  Queen  on 

1  Speed's  Chronicle^  p.  1133. 


The  Capital  in  Danger  299 

Ash  Wednesday  he  wore  a  coat  of  mail  beneath 
his  vestments.  There  had  been  no  need  to  bid 
the  Spanish  ambassadors  to  depart,  those  gentlemen 
having  prudently  decamped  as  speedily  as  possible. 
Upon  February  2  Mary  in  person  proceeded  to 
the  Guildhall,  and,  there  meeting  the  chief  amongst 
the  citizens,  made  them  a  speech  which  was  an 
admirable  combination  of  appeal  and  independence, 
and  showed  that  if  outwardly  she  bore  no  resemblance 
to  father  or  sister  the  Tudor  spirit  was  alive  in  her. 
She  had  come,  she  said,  to  tell  them  what  they 
already  knew — of  the  treason  of  the  Kentish  rebels, 
who  demanded  the  possession  of  her  person,  the 
keeping  of  the  Tower,  and  the  placing  and  dis- 
placing of  her  counsellors. 

That  day  marked  the  crisis  in  the  progress  of 
the  insurrection.  Mary's  visit  to  the  Guildhall  had 
taken  place  on  February  2.  When  on  the  following 
day  Wyatt,  leaving  Deptford,  marched  to  Southwark 
the  tide  had  turned.  His  followers  were  falling 
away  ;  no  other  part  of  the  country  was  in  arms 
to  support  him  ;  and  his  position  was  becoming 
desperate.  His  daring,  nevertheless,  did  not  fail. 
A  price  had  been  put  upon  his  head,  and,  aware 
of  the  proclamation,  he  caused  his  name  to  be 
"  fair  written,"  and  set  it  on  his  cap.  The  act  of 
bravado  was  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the 
popular  leader. 

Meantime  the  measures  to  be  taken  against  him 


300  Lady  Jane  Grey 

were  anxiously  discussed.  On  the  4th  Sir  Nicholas 
Poynings,  on  duty  at  the  Tower,  waited  upon  the 
Queen  to  receive  her  orders,  and  to  learn  whether 
the  ordnance  was  to  be  directed  upon  Southwark, 
and  the  houses  knocked  down  upon  the  heads  of 
Wyatt  and  his  men,  quartered  in  that  district. 

Mary,  to  her  honour,  refused  to  authorise  the 
drastic  mode  of  attack. 

"  Nay,"  she  replied,  "  that  were  pity  ;  for  many 
poor  men  and  householders  are  like  to  be  undone 
there  and  killed.  For,  God  willing,  they  shall  be 
fought  with  to-morrow." 

The  innocent  were  not  to  be  involved  in  the 
destruction  of  the  guilty.  Her  decision  was  un- 
welcome at  the  Tower.  The  night  before  Sir  John 
Bridges  had  expressed  his  surprise  to  the  sentinel 
on  duty  that  the  rebels  had  not  yet  been  fought. 

"  By  God's  mother,"  he  added,  "  I  fear  there  is 
some  traitor  abroad,  that  they  be  suffered  all  this 
while.  For  surely  if  it  had  been  about  my  sentry 
[or  beat]  I  would  have  fought  with  them  myself, 
by  God's  grace." 

Wyatt,  strangely  enough,  was  no  less  pitiful  than 
the  Queen.  Although  she  had  refused  permission 
for  the  discharge  of  the  guns,  they  had  been  directed 
by  those  responsible  for  them  upon  the  spot  where 
the  rebel  body  was  stationed ;  and,  in  terror  of 
a  cannonade,  the  inhabitants,  men  and  women, 
approached  the  insurgent  leader  "  in  most  lament- 


The  Tide  Turned  301 

able  wise,"  setting  forth  the  danger  his  presence  was 
bringing  upon  them,  and  praying  him  for  the  love  of 
God  to  have  pity.  The  appeal  was  not  made  in  vain. 

"  At  which  words  he,  being  partly  abashed,  stayed 
awhile,  and  then  said  these,  or  much  like  words, 
'  I  pray  you,  my  friends,  content  yourselves  a 
little,  and  I  will  soon  ease  you  of  this  mischief. 
For  God  forbid  that  you,  or  the  least  child  here, 
should  be  hurt  or  killed  on  my  behalf,'  and  so  in 
most  speedy  manner  marched  away." 

A  meeting  was  to  have  taken  place  before  sunrise 
with  some  of  the  disaffected  in  the  City.  By 
this  means  it  had  been  hoped  that  a  surprise 
might  be  contrived.  But  a  portion  of  Kingston 
Bridge,  where  the  river  was  to  be  crossed,  had 
been  destroyed ;  time  was  lost  in  repairing  it, 
and  the  assignation  at  Ludgate  was  missed.  The 
scheme  had  supplied  Wyatt's  last  chance  and 
failure  was  staring  him  in  the  face.  Rats  were 
leaving  the  sinking  vessel.  The  Protestant 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  had  hitherto  lent  the 
countenance  of  his  presence  in  the  camp  to  the 
insurgents,  fled  beyond  seas ;  Sir  George  Harper, 
having  rejoined  Wyatt's  forces,  deserted  for  the 
second  time,  and  made  his  way  to  St.  James's  to 
give  warning  to  the  Court  of  the  approach  of  the 
rebel  leader. 

Such  being  the  condition  of  things,  it  is  singular 
to  find  that  at  the  palace  something  like  a  panic 


302  Lady  Jane  Grey 

was  prevailing.  Mary  was  entreated  by  her  ministers 
to  seek  safety  at  the  Tower  ;  and,  though  deciding 
in  the  end  to  remain  at  her  post,  she  appears  at  first 
to  have  been  inclined  to  act  upon  the  suggestion. 
A  plan  of  action  was  determined  upon  in  a  hurried 
consultation.  Wyatt,  it  was  agreed,  was  to  be  per- 
mitted to  reach  the  City,  with  a  certain  number  of 
his  followers,  and  having  been  thus  detached  from 
the  main  body  of  his  troops  it  was  hoped  that  he 
would  be  trapped  and  seized. 

In  the  meantime  arrangements  were  made  for 
the  defence  of  the  Queen  and  the  palace.  Edward 
Underhyll,  the  Hot-Gospeller  for  whose  child  Lady 
Jane  had  stood  godmother  six  months  earlier,  and 
who  was  on  duty  as  a  gentleman-pensioner  at  St. 
James's,  has  left  a  graphic  account  of  the  scene 
there  that  night,  and  of  the  terror  of  the  Queen's 
ladies  when  the  pensioners,  armed  with  pole-axes, 
were  placed  on  guard  in  their  mistress's  apartments. 
The  breach  of  etiquette  appears  to  have  struck  them 
as  an  earnest  of  the  peril  to  which  it  was  owing. 
Was  such  a  sight  ever  seen,  they  cried,  wringing 
their  hands,  that  the  Queen's  chamber  should  be 
full  of  armed  men  ? 

Underhyll,  for  his  part,  soon  received  his 
dismissal.  As  the  usher  charged  with  the  duty 
looked  at  the  list  of  the  pensioners  before  calling 
them  over,  his  eye  was  caught  by  the  well-known 
name  of  the  Hot-Gospeller. 


Edward  Underhyll  303 

"By  God's  Body,"  he  said,  "that  heretic  shall 
not  watch  here  !  "  and  Underhyll,  taking  his  men 
with  him,  and  professing  satisfaction  at  his  exemption 
from  duty,  went  his  way. 

By  the  morning  he  had  reconsidered  the  matter, 
and  thought  it  well  to  ignore  his  rebuff  and  return 
to  his  post.  For  the  present,  he  joined  company 
with  one  of  the  Throckmortons,  who  had  just  left 
the  palace  after  reporting  there  the  welcome  tidings 
of  the  capture  of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  at  Coventry, 
the  two  proceeding  together  to  Ludgate,  intending 
to  pass  the  remainder  of  the  night  in  the  City. 
The  gate,  however,  was  found  to  be  fast  locked,  and 
those  on  guard  within  explained,  with  much  ill-timed 
laughter,  to  the  tired  wayfarers  outside,  that  they 
were  not  entrusted  with  the  keys,  and  could  give 
admittance  to  none. 

It  was  disconcerting  intelligence  to  men  in  search 
of  a  lodging  and  repose  ;  and  Throckmorton,  in 
especial,  fresh  from  his  hurried  journey,  felt  that 
he  was  hardly  treated. 

"  I  am  weary  and  faint,"  he  complained,  "  and  1 
wax  now  cold."  No  man  would  open  his  door  in 
this  dangerous  time,  and  he  would  perish  that  night. 
Such  was  his  piteous  lament. 

Underhyll,  a  man  of  resource,  had  a  plan  to 
propose. 

"  Let  us  go  to  Newgate,"  he  suggested.  He 
thought  himself  secure  of  an  entrance  there  into 


304  Lady  Jane  Grey 

the  city.  At  the  worst,  he  had  acquaintances  within 
the  prison — like  most  men  at  that  day — having 
recently  been  in  confinement  there.  The  door  of 
the  keeper  of  the  gaol  was  without  the  gate,  and 
Underhyll  entertained  no  doubts  of  finding  a 
hospitable  reception  in  his  old  quarters.  Throck- 
morton,  it  was  true,  declared  at  first  that  he  would 
almost  as  soon  die  in  the  street  as  seek  so  ill-omened 
a  refuge  ;  but  in  the  end  the  two  proceeded  thither, 
and,  a  friend  of  Underhyll's  being  fortunately  in 
command  of  the  guard  placed  outside  the  gate,  the 
wanderers  were  permitted  to  enter  the  City. 

Whilst  consternation  and  alarm  were  felt  at 
the  palace  at  the  tidings  of  Wyatt's  approach, 
the  rebel  leader  himself  must  have  been  aware  that 
the  game  had  been  played  and  lost.  Yet  he 
kept  up  a  bold  front,  and  refused  to  acknowledge 
that  he  was  beaten. 

"  Twice  have  I  knocked,  and  not  been  suffered 
to  enter,"  he  was  reported  to  have  said.  *c  If  I 
knock  the  third  time  I  will  come  in,  by  God's 
grace." 

They  were  brave  words.  An  incident  of  his  march 
to  Kingston  nevertheless  sounds  the  note  of  a  con- 
sciousness of  impending  defeat.  Meeting,  as  he  went, 
a  merchant  of  London  who  was  known  to  him,  he 
charged  him  with  a  greeting  to  his  fellow-citizens. 
"  And  say  unto  them  from  me  that  when  liberty 
and  freedom  was  offered  them  they  would  not  accept 


The  Fight  in  London  305 

it,  neither  would  they  admit  me  within  their  gates, 
who  for  their  freedom  and  the  disburthening  of 
their  griefs  and  oppression  by  strangers  would  have 
frankly  spent  my  blood  in  that  their  cause  and 
quarrel  ;  .  .  .  therefore  they  are  the  less  to  be 
bemoaned  hereafter  when  the  miserable  tyranny  of 
strangers  shall  oppress  them." 

It  may  be  that  by  some  amongst  the  men  to 
whom  the  message  was  sent  his  words  were  re- 
membered thereafter. 

Still  the  insurgents  pushed  on.  By  nine  in 
the  morning  Knightsbridge  was  reached.  Dis- 
heartened, weary,  and  faint  for  lack  of  food,  they 
were  in  no  condition  to  stand  against  the  Queen's 
troops.  But  the  mere  fact  of  their  vicinity  was 
disquieting  to  those  in  no  position  to  form  a 
correct  estimate  of  their  strength  or  weakness,  and 
when  Underhyll  returned  to  the  palace  he  found 
confusion  and  turmoil  there. 

His  men  were  stationed  in  the  hall,  which  was 
to  be  their  special  charge.  Sir  John  Gage,  with 
part  of  the  guard,  was  placed  outside  the  gate,  the 
rest  of  the  guard  were  within  the  great  courtyard  ; 
the  Queen  occupying  the  gallery  by  the  gatehouse, 
whence  she  could  watch  what  should  befall. 

This  was  the  disposition  of  the  defenders,  when 
suddenly  a  body  of  the  rebels  made  their  way  to 
the  very  gates  of  the  palace.  A  struggle  took  place  ; 
Gage  and  three  of  the  judges  who  had  been  with 

20 


306  Lady  Jane  Grey 

him  retreated  hurriedly  within  the  gates,  Sir  John, 
who  was  old,  stumbling  in  his  haste  and  falling  in  the 
mire.  Within  all  was  in  disorder.  The  gates  had 
clanged  to  behind  Gage,  his  soldiers,  and  the  men 
of  law,  as  they  gained  the  shelter  of  the  courtyard. 
Without  the  rebels  were  using  their  bows  and 
arrows.  The  guard  stationed  in  the  outer  court, 
attempting  to  make  good  their  entrance  to  the  hall, 
were  forcibly  ejected  by  the  gentlemen  pensioners 
in  charge  of  it.  Poor  Gage — "  so  frighted  that  he 
could  not  speak  to  us" — and  the  three  judges,  also 
in  such  terror  that  force  would  have  been  necessary 
to  keep  them  out,  were  alone  admitted  to  the 
comparative  safety  it  afforded. 

There  was  in  truth  little  reason  for  alarm.  The 
manoeuvre  decided  upon  during  the  night  had 
been  executed.  The  Queen's  troops,  Pembroke  at 
their  head,  had  deliberately  permitted  Wyatt  to 
break  through  their  lines,  and,  with  some  hundreds 
of  his  men,  to  proceed  eastward.  Behind  him  the 
enemy  had  closed  up,  and  he  was  separated  from 
the  main  body  of  the  rebels,  thus  left  leaderless  to 
be  engaged  by  the  royal  forces.  The  Queen's 
orders  had  been  successfully  carried  out.  But  to 
the  anxious  watchers  in  the  palace  the  affair  may 
have  worn  the  aspect  of  a  defeat,  if  not  of  a  treason, 
and  there  were  not  wanting  those  who  suspected 
Pembroke  of  a  betrayal  of  his  trust.  A  shout  was 
raised  that  all  was  lost. 


The  Fight  in  London  307 

"  Away,  away  !  a  barge,  a  barge  ! — let  the  Queen 
be  placed  in  safety  !  "  was  the  cry. 

Again  Mary  was  to  show  that  she  was  a  Tudor. 
She  would  not  beat  a  retreat  before  rebels.  Where, 
she  inquired,  was  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  ?  and 
receiving  the  answer  that  he  was  in  the  field, 
"  Well  then,"  she  said,  "  fall  to  prayer,  and  I 
warrant  you  that  we  shall  have  better  news  anon, 
for  my  lord  will  not  deceive  me,  I  know  well.  If 
he  would,  God  will  not,  in  Whom  my  chief  trust 
is,  Who  will  not  deceive  me." 

Though  it  was  well  to  have  confidence  in  God, 
men  with  arms  in  their  hands  would  have  liked  to 
use  them,  and  the  pensioners  entreated  Sir  Richard 
Southwell,  in  authority  within  the  palace,  to  have 
the  gates  opened  that  they  might  try  a  fall  with 
the  enemy  ;  else,  they  threatened,  they  would  break 
them  down.  It  was  too  much  shame  that  the 
doors  should  be  shut  upon  a  few  rebels. 

Southwell  was  quite  of  the  same  mind ;  and, 
interceding  with  Mary,  obtained  her  leave  for  the 
pensioners  to  have  their  way,  provided  they  would 
not  go  out  of  her  sight,  since  her  trust  was  in 
them — a  command  she  reiterated  as,  the  gates  being 
thrown  open,  the  band  marched  under  the  gallery, 
where  she  still  kept  her  place.  It  was  not  long 
before  her  confidence  in  the  commander  of  the  royal 
troops  was  justified,  and  news  was  brought  that 
put  an  end  to  all  fear.  Wyatt  was  taken. 


308  Lady  Jane  Grey 

At  the  head  of  that  body  of  his  men  who 
had  been  allowed  to  clear  the  enemy's  lines,  he  had 
ridden  on  towards  the  City,  had  passed  Temple 
Bar  and  Fleet  Street,  till  Ludgate  was  reached. 
There  he  halted.  He  had  kept  his  tryst,  fulfilled 
the  pledge  he  had  given,  and  knocked,  as  he  had 
promised,  at  the  gate.  Let  them  open  to  him  ; 
Wyatt  was  there — successful  so  long,  he  may  have 
thought  there  was  magic  in  the  name — Wyatt  was 
there  ;  the  Queen  had  granted  their  requests. 

The  City  remained  unmoved  ;  and,  in  terms  of 
insult,  Sir  William  Howard  refused  him  entrance. 

"  Avaunt,  traitor,"  he  said,  barring  the  way, 
"  thou  shalt  not  come  in  here." 

It  was  the  last  blow.  The  poor  chance  that 
the  City  might  have  lent  its  aid  had  constituted  the 
single  remaining  possibility  of  a  retrieval  of  the 
fortunes  of  the  insurrection.  That  vanished,  the 
end  was  inevitable.  London  had  blustered,  had 
expressed  its  detestation  for  the  Spanish  match, 
had  paraded  its  Protestantism  ;  it  was  now  plain 
that  it  had  not  meant  business,  and  the  man  who 
had  taken  it  at  its  word  was  doomed. 

A  strange  little  scene  followed — a  scene  forming 
an  interlude,  as  it  were,  in  the  tumult  and  excitement 
of  the  hour.  It  may  be  that  the  effects  of  the 
strain  and  fatigue  of  the  last  weeks,  of  the  hopes 
and  fears  that  had  filled  them,  of  the  march  of 
the  night  before,  unlightened  by  any  genuine 


Wyatt  a  Prisoner  309 

anticipation  of  victory,  were  suddenly  felt  by  the 
man  who  had  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day. 
At  any  rate,  turning  without  further  parley,  he 
made  his  way  back  to  the  Bel  Savage  Inn,  and  there 
"awhile  stayed,  and,  as  some  say,  rested  him  upon 
a  seat."  Sitting  there,  trapped  by  his  enemies,  in 
"the  shirt  of  mail,  with  sleeves  very  fair,  velvet 
cassock,  and  the  fair  hat  of  velvet  with  broad 
bone-work  lace  "  he  had  worn  that  day,  he  may 
have  looked  on  and  seen  the  future  bounded  by 
a  scaffold.  Then,  rousing  himself,  he  rose,  and 
returned  by  the  way  he  had  come,  until  Temple  Bar 
was  reached. 

Though  the  combat  was  there  renewed,  all  must 
have  known  that  further  resistance  was  vain,  and  at 
length,  yielding  to  a  remonstrance  at  the  shedding 
of  useless  blood,  Wyatt  consented  to  acknowledge 
his  defeat  and  to  yield  himself  a  prisoner  to  Sir 
Maurice  Berkeley.  He  had  fought  the  battle  of 
many  men  who  had  taken  no  weapon  in  hand  to 
support  him.  When  false  hopes  had  at  one  time 
been  entertained  of  his  success  "  many  hollow  hearts 
rejoiced  in  London  at  the  same."  But  scant 
sympathy  will  have  been  shown  to  the  vanquished. 

It  remained  to  consign  the  captives  to  the 
universal  house  of  detention.  By  five  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  as  the  spring  day  was  closing  in, 
Wyatt  and  five  of  his  comrades  had  been  conducted 
to  the  Tower  by  Jerningham.  They  arrived  by 


310  Lady  Jane  Grey 

water,  and  were  met  at  the  bulwark  by  Sir  Philip 
Denny,  who  greeted  the  prisoners  with  words  of 
fierce  upbraiding. 

"  Go,  traitor,"  he  said,  as  Wyatt  passed  by,  "  there 
was  never  such  a  traitor  in  England." 

Wyatt  turned  upon  him. 

"  I  am  no  traitor,"  he  answered.  "  I  would  thou 
should  well  know  thou  art  more  traitor  than  I ;  and 
it  is  not  the  part  of  an  honest  man  to  call  me  so." 

He  was  right  ;  but  courtesy  to  the  defeated  was 
no  article  of  the  code  of  the  day.  At  the  Tower 
Gate  Sir  John  Bridges,  the  Lieutenant,  stood,  like- 
wise ready  to  receive  and  to  revile  his  prisoners. 
To  each  in  turn  he  addressed  some  varied  form  of 
abuse,  taking  Wyatt,  who  came  last,  by  the  collar 
"  in  very  rigorous  manner,"  and  shaking  him. 

"  c  Thou  villain  and  unhappy  traitor,'  he  cried,  .  .  . 
f  if  it  were  not  that  the  law  must  justly  pass  upon 
thee,  I  would  strike  thee  through  with  my  dagger.' 

"  To  whom  Wyatt  made  no  answer,  but,  holding 
his  arms  under  his  side,  and  looking  grievously 
with  a  grim  look  upon  the  said  Lieutenant,  said, 
4  It  is  no  mastery  now,'  and  so  they  passed  on." 

Thus  ended  Wyatt's  rebellion.  Together  with 
her  father's  treason,  it  had  sealed  Lady  Jane's  fate, 
and  that  of  the  boy-husband  who  shared  her 
captivity. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

1554 

Lady  Jane  and  her  husband  doomed — Her  dispute  with  Feckenham 
— Gardiner's  sermon — Farewell  messages — Last  hours — Guil- 
ford  Dudley's  execution — Lady  Jane's  death. 

THOSE  anxious  days  when  the  fortunes  of 
England  and  its  Queen  appeared  once  more 
to  hang  in  the  balance  had  sealed  the  fate  of  the 
prisoners  in  the  Tower.  They  must  die.  Mary  had 
been  warned  that  the  clemency  shown  to  her  little 
cousin  was  unwise  ;  she  had  struggled  against  the 
counsellors  who  had  striven  to  convince  her  that 
the  usurper,  so  long  as  she  lived,  was  a  menace 
to  the  peace  of  the  realm,  and  the  stability  of  her 
government.  Their  warnings  had  been  justified, 
and  Jane  must  pay  the  penalty. 

What  was  to  be  done  was  to  be  done  quickly. 
It  was  perhaps  feared  that,  with  leisure  to  reconsider 
the  matter,  the  Queen  would  even  now  retract  her 
consent  to  deliver  up  the  victim  ;  nor  was  there 
any  excuse  for  delay.  The  boy  and  girl  already  lay 
under  sentence  of  death  ;  it  was  only  necessary 
to  carry  it  into  effect.  So  far  as  this  life  was 
concerned  Lady  Jane's  doom  was  fixed. 

3" 


312  Lady  Jane  Grey 

It  remained  to  take  thought  for  her  soul.  With 
death  staring  them  in  the  face,  many  had  been  lately 
found  willing  to  conform  their  faith  to  the  Queen's. 
Why  should  it  not  be  so  with  the  Queen's  cousin  ? 
To  compass  this  object  Mary's  chaplain,  Dr. 
Feckenham,  the  new  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  was  sent  to 
plead  with  the  captive,  and  to  strive  to  reconcile 
her  with  God  and  the  Church  before  she  went  hence. 

The  ambassador  was  well  chosen.  Learned  and 
devout,  he  had  been  bred  a  Benedictine,  and  had, 
under  Henry  VIII.,  suffered  imprisonment  on  ac- 
count of  his  faith  ;  until  Sir  Philip  Hoby,  in  his 
own  words,  "  borrowed  him  of  the  Tower."  Since 
then  it  had  been  his  habit  to  hold  disputations, 
"  earnest  yet  modest,"  according  to  Fuller,  in  de- 
fence of  his  religion,  and  was  honoured  by  Mary 
and  Elizabeth  alike.  This  was  the  man  to  whom 
was  entrusted  the  difficult  task  of  convincing  Lady 
Jane  of  her  errors.  It  was  scarcely  to  be  antici- 
pated that  he  would  succeed,  but  he  seems  to  have 
performed  the  thankless  duty  laid  upon  him  with 
gentleness  and  good  feeling. 

Arrived  at  the  Tower — his  whilom  place  of  cap- 
tivity— Feckenham,  after  some  preliminary  courtesies, 
disclosed  the  object  of  his  visit,  adding  certain 
persuasive  arguments,  to  which  the  prisoner  made 
reply  that  he  had  delayed  too  long,  and  time 
was  over-short  to  allow  her  to  give  attention  to 
these  matters.  The  answer,  in  whatever  sense  it 


Lady  Jane  Doomed  313 

was  meant,  was  sufficiently  ambiguous  to  afford  a 
sanguine  and  anxious  man  grounds  for  hope  that, 
with  leisure  for  discussion,  he  might  win  a  favour- 
able hearing  ;  considering  his  proposed  convert 
"in  very  good  dispositions,"  he  went  to  seek  the 
Queen  ;  and,  describing  his  interview,  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  inducing  her  to  grant  a  three-days'  reprieve. 
Friday,  February  9,  had  been  at  first  appointed  for 
the  execution,  and  when — for  reasons  undisclosed 
to  the  public — it  was  deferred  until  the  following 
Monday,  the  change  may  have  given  rise  in  some 
quarters  to  expectations  unwarranted  by  the  event. 
There  were  those  determined  to  hold  Mary  to  her 
purpose. 

On  Sunday,  the  nth,  Gardiner  preached  before 
the  Queen,  dealing  first  with  the  doctrine  of  free 
will  ;  secondly,  with  the  institution  of  Lent ;  thirdly, 
with  the  necessity  of  good  works ;  and  fourthly, 
with  Protestant  errors.  After  which  he  came  to 
the  practical  question  in  all  men's  minds.  He 
asked  a  boon  of  the  Queen's  Highness — that,  like 
as  she  had  beforetime  extended  her  mercy,  parti- 
cularly and  privately,  so  through  her  lenity  and 
gentleness  much  conspiracy  and  open  rebellion  were 
grown,  according  to  the  proverb,  nimia  familiaritas 
parit  contemptum,  which  he  brought  in  for  the 
purpose  that  she  would  now  be  merciful  to  the 
body  of  the  Commonwealth  and  conservation 
thereof,  which  could  not  be  unless  the  rotten  and 


Lady  Jane  Grey 

hurtful  members  thereof  were  cut  off  and  consumed. 
"  And  thus  he  ended  soon  after,  whereby  all  the 
audience  did  gather  there  should  shortly  follow 
sharp  and  cruel  execution."  l 

Whether  or  not  Gardiner's  discourse  was  directed 
against  a  tendency  to  waver  in  her  intention  on 
the  part  of  his  mistress,  it  was  proved  that  there 
was  nothing  in  that  direction  to  be  apprehended. 
Meantime,  armed  with  the  boon  he  had  obtained, 
Feckenham  had  returned  to  the  Tower,  to  beg  the 
captive  to  make  use  of  the  reprieve  for  the  salvation 
of  her  soul. 

Lady  Jane's  reply  was  not  encouraging.  She 
had  not,  she  told  him,  intended  her  words  to  be 
repeated  to  the  Queen  ;  she  had  already  aban- 
doned worldly  things,  had  no  thought  of  fear,  and 
was  prepared  to  meet  death  patiently  in  whatsoever 
form  might  please  the  Queen.  To  the  flesh  it 
was  indeed  painful,  but  her  soul  was  joyful  at 
quitting  this  darkness,  and  rising,  as  by  God's 
mercy  she  hoped  to  rise,  to  eternal  light.2 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  priest, 
a  good  man,  full  of  zeal  for  his  religion  and  of 
solicitude  for  the  dying  culprit,  would  consent  to 
relinquish,  without  an  effort,  the  attempt  to  utilise 
the  respite  he  had  been  granted.  Of  what  followed 
accounts  vary,  according  to  the  theological  pro- 

1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  p.  54. 
•  Rosso  Succesi  d' Inghilterra,  p.  53. 


Lady  Jane  and  Feckenham  315 

clivities  of  the  narrator  of  the  scene,  an  early 
pamphlet  asserting  that  Feckenham,  finding  himself, 
in  reasoning,  "  in  all  holy  gifts  so  short  of  [Lady 
Jane's]  excellence  that  he  acknowledged  himself 
fitter  to  be  her  disciple  than  teacher,  thereupon 
humbly  besought  her  to  deliver  unto  him  some 
brief  sum  of  her  faith  which  he  might  hereafter 
keep,  and  as  a  faithful  witness  publish  to  the  world  ; 
to  which  she  willingly  condescended,  and  bade  him 
boldly  question  her  in  what  points  of  religion  soever 
it  pleased  him."  1 

The  attitude  ascribed  to  Queen  Mary's  chaplain 
would  seem  more  likely  to  be  due  to  imagination 
than  to  fact.  It  appears,  however,  that  a  species 
of  "  catechising  argument "  did  in  truth  take  place 
in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  an  account  of  which 
was  set  down  in  writing,  and  received  Lady  Jane's 
signature.  The  only  result  of  the  discussion  was 
the  strengthening  rather  than  shaking  of  her  con- 
victions ;  and  though  it  was  not  until  she  stood 
upon  the  scaffold  that  the  last  farewells  of  the 
disputants  were  taken,  Feckenham  must  soon  have 
been  aware  that  his  efforts  would  be  made  in 
vain.  It  may  be  hoped  that  to  the  imagination 
of  the  chronicler  is  again  to  be  ascribed  the 
manner  of  the  parting  of  the  two  on  this  first 
occasion,  when,  feeling  himself  to  be  worsted  in 
argument,  Feckenham  is  said  to  have  "grown  into 
1  Life  and  Death  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  1615,  p  22. 


316  Lady  Jane  Grey 

a  little  choler,"  and  used  language  unsuitable  to  his 
gravity,  received  with  smiles  and  patience  by  the 
cause  of  his  irritation.  It  is  further  stated  that  to 
a  final  speech  of  her  visitor,  to  the  effect  that  he 
was  sorry  for  her  obstinacy,  and  was  certain  that 
they  would  meet  no  more,  Lady  Jane,  not  altogether 
with  the  meekness  attributed  to  her,  retorted  that 
his  words  were  indeed  most  true,  since,  unless  he 
should  repent,  he  was  in  a  sad  and  desperate  case, 
and  she  prayed  God  that,  as  He  had  given  him 
His  great  gift  of  utterance,  He  might  open  his 
heart  to  His  truth.1 

So  the  days  passed,  and  the  fatal  one  was  at  hand. 
On  Saturday,  February  10,  the  Duke  of  Suffolk, 
with  his  brother,  Lord  John  Grey,  had  been  brought 
prisoners  to  the  Tower  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that 
any  meeting  took  place  between  father  and  daughter, 
and  Lady  Jane's  leave-taking  was  made  in  writing  ; 
sentences  of  farewell  being  inscribed  by  her  and  her 
husband  in  a  manual  of  prayers  belonging,  as  is 
conjectured,  to  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  and 
used  by  her  on  the  scaffold.  In  this  volume  three 
sentences  were  written. 

"  Your  loving  and  obedient  son,"  wrote  Guilford, 
"  wisheth  unto  your  Grace  long  life  in  this  world, 

1  It  will  be  seen  that  the  bearing  of  the  two  opponents  on  the 
scaffold  would  seem  to  give  the  lie  to  this  account  of  their  interview  ; 
unless,  the  heat  of  argument  over,  both  should  have  regretted  what 
had  passed. 


Lady  Jane's  Farewells  317 

with  as  much  joy  and  comfort  as  ever  I  wished  to 
myself,  and  in  the  world   to  come  joy  everlasting. 

G.  DUDDELEY." 

Jane's  farewell  followed  : 

"  The  Lord  comfort  your  Grace,  and  that  in  His 
word  wherein  all  creatures  only  are  to  be  comforted. 
And  though  it  has  pleased  God  to  take  away  two 
of  your  children,  yet  think  not,  I  most  humbly 
beseech  your  Grace,  that  you  have  lost  them,  but 
trust  that  we,  by  leaving  this  mortal  life,  have  won 
an  immortal  life.  And  I,  for  my  part,  as  I  have 
honoured  your  Grace  in  this  life,  will  pray  for  you 
in  another  life. 

"  Your  Grace's  humble  daughter, 

"JANE  DUDDELEY." 

The  same  book  bears  another  inscription  ad- 
dressed to  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  Bridges, 
apparently  at  his  own  request. 

"  Forasmuch  as  you  have  desired,"  Jane  wrote, 
"  so  simple  a  woman  to  write  in  so  worthy  a  book, 
good  Master  Lieutenant,  therefore  I  shall  as  a 
friend  desire  you,  and  as  a  Christian  require  you, 
to  call  upon  God  to  incline  your  heart  to  His  laws, 
to  quicken  you  in  His  way,  and  not  to  take  the 
word  of  truth  utterly  out  of  your  mouth.  Live 
still  to  die,  that  by  death  you  may  purchase  eternal 
life,  and  remember  the  end  of  Methuselah,  who,  as 


Lady  Jane  Grey 

we  read  in  the  Scriptures,  was  the  longest  liver  that 
was  of  a  man,  died  at  the  last  ;  for  as  the  preacher 
saith,  there  is  a  time  to  be  born  and  a  time  to  die, 
and  the  day  of  death  is  better  than  the  day  of  our 
birth.  Yours,  as  the  Lord  knoweth,  as  a  friend, 

"JANE  DUDDELEY." 

Such  an  admonition  to  the  Lieutenant,  written 
when  death  was  very  near,  is  characteristic.  It 
was  ever  Lady  Jane's  custom  to  use  her  pen,  and 
the  habit  clung  to  her.  Tradition  asserts  that 
three  sentences,  the  one  in  Greek,  the  other  in 
Latin,  and  the  third  in  English,  were  written  by 
her  in  yet  another  book  ;  and  though  it  has  been 
argued  that  she  would  have  been  in  no  condition 
to  compose  epigrams  in  the  dead  languages  at  a 
moment  when  death  was  staring  her  in  the  face, 
there  is  nothing  improbable  in  the  story,  unsupported 
as  it  is  by  evidence.  As  a  man  lives,  he  dies  ;  and 
Jane  had  been  a  scholar  and  a  moralist  from  her 
cradle. 

"  If  justice  dwells  in  my  body " — thus  the 
sentences  are  said  to  have  run — "  my  soul  will 
receive  it  from  the  mercy  of  God. — Death  will  pay 
the  penalty  of  my  fault,  but  my  soul  will  be  justified 
before  the  Face  of  God. — If  my  fault  merited 
chastisement,  my  youth,  at  least,  and  my  imprudence, 
deserved  excuse.  God  and  posterity  will  show  me 
grace." 


Lady  Jane's  Farewells  3 1 9 

A  letter  of  exhortation  addressed  to  her  sister 
Katherine  likewise  remains,  another  proof  of  her 
desire  to  impress  upon  others  the  lessons  life  had 
taught  her.  Having  been  reading,  the  night 
before  her  death,  in  "  a  fair  New  Testament  in 
Greek,"  she  found,  on  closing  it,  some  few  leaves 
of  clean  paper,  unwritten,  at  the  end  of  the  volume, 
and  made  use  of  them  to  convey  her  final  farewell 
to  the  sister  she  was  leaving  behind,  giving  it  in 
charge  to  her  servant  as  a  token  of  love  and 
remembrance.  As  might  have  been  expected,  with 
the  thought  of  the  morrow  before  her,  death  was 
the  recurrent  burden  of  her  theme.  "  Live  still 
to  die,"  she  told  little  Katherine,  as  she  had 
told  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  "  and  that  by 
death  you  may  purchase  eternal  life  ;  and  trust 
not  that  the  tenderness  of  your  age  shall  lengthen 
your  life  .  .  .  for  as  soon  will  the  Lord  be  glorified 
in  the  young  as  in  the  old.  .  .  .  Once  more  let 
me  entreat  thee  to  learn  to  die.  .  .  .  Desire  with 
St.  Paul  to  be  dissolved  and  to  be  with  Christ,  with 
whom  even  in  death  there  is  life.  ...  As  touching 
my  death,  rejoice  as  I  do  ...  that  I  shall  be 
delivered  of  this  corruption  and  put  on  incorruption  ; 
for  I  am  assured  that  I  shall,  for  losing  of  a  mortal 
life,  win  one  that  is  immortal,  joyful,  and  ever- 
lasting." 

Another  composition  is  extant,  said  to  belong 
to  this  last  period,  and  showing  the  writer,  it 


320  Lady  Jane  Grey 

may  be,  in  a  more  pathetic  light  than  that  thrown 
upon  her  by  disputes  with  controversialists,  or 
exhortations  to  those  she  left  behind.  This  is 
a  prayer,  exhibiting  not  so  much  the  premature 
woman  as  the  child — a  child,  it  is  true,  facing  death 
with  steadfast  faith  and  resignation,  but  nevertheless 
frightened,  unhappy,  "  unquieted  with  troubles, 
wrapped  in  cares,  overwhelmed  with  miseries,  vexed 
with  temptations  .  .  .  craving  Thy  mercy  and  help, 
without  the  which  so  little  hope  of  deliverance  is 
left  that  I  may  utterly  despair  of  my  liberty." 

Of  liberty  it  was,  in  truth,  time  to  despair.  It 
is  said  that  for  two  hours  on  this  last  night  two 
bishops,  with  other  divines,  made  a  vain  attempt 
to  accomplish  the  conversion  that  Feckenham  had 
failed  to  effect1  ;  after  which  we  may  hope  that, 
worn  out  and  exhausted,  the  prisoner  forgot  her 
troubles  in  sleep.  And  so  the  night  passed  away. 

In  another  part  of  the  great  fortress  young 
Guilford  Dudley  was  also  preparing  for  the  end. 
It  is  said 2  that,  "  desiring  to  give  his  wife  the  last 
kisses  and  embraces,"  he  begged  for  an  interview, 
but  that  she  refused  the  request — not  disallowed  by 
Mary — replying  that,  could  sight  have  given  souls 
comfort,  she  would  have  been  very  willing  ;  that 
since  it  would  only  increase  the  misery  of  each, 
and  bring  greater  grief,  it  would  be  best  to  put  off 

1  Life  and  Death  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  1615,  p.  25. 
1  Rosso,  Succesi,  etc.,  p.  57. 


Execution  of  Guilford  Dudley          321 

their  meeting,  since  soon  they  would  see  each 
other  in  another  place  and  live  joined  for  ever  by 
an  indissoluble  tie.  If  the  story  is  true,  there  is 
something  a  little  inhuman — or  perhaps  only 
belonging  to  the  coldness  of  a  child — in  the  wisdom 
which,  at  that  moment,  could  weigh  and  balance 
the  disadvantages  of  a  leave-taking  and  refuse  it. 
It  is  not,  however,  out  of  character. 

It  had  been  at  first  intended  that  the  two  should 
suffer  together  on  Tower  Hill.  Fearing  the  effect 
upon  the  populace,  the  order  was  cancelled,  and  it 
was  decided  that,  whilst  Guilford's  execution  should 
take  place  as  originally  arranged,  Lady  Jane  should 
meet  her  death  within  the  precincts  of  the  Tower 
itself.  As  the  lad,  led  to  his  doom,  passed  below 
her  window,  the  two  looked  upon  each  other  for 
the  last  time.  Young  Dudley  met  the  end  bravely. 
Taking  Sir  Anthony  Browne,  John  Throckmorton 
and  others  by  the  hand,  he  asked  their  prayers  ; 
then,  attended  by  no  priest  or  minister,  he  knelt 
to  pray,  u  holding  up  his  eyes  and  hands  to  God 
many  times,"  before  the  executioner  did  his  work 
and  he  went  to  join  the  father  who  was  responsible 
for  his  fate,  "  bewailed  with  lamentable  tears  "  even 
by  those  of  the  spectators  who  till  that  day  had 
never  seen  him.1 

A  ghastly  incident,  variously  recorded,  followed. 
His  body  thrown  into  a  cart,  and  his  head  wrapped 

1  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary. 

21 


322  Lady  Jane  Grey 

in  a  cloth,  he  was  brought  into  the  Tower  chapel, 
where  Lady  Jane,  having  probably  left  her  apart- 
ments on  her  way  to  her  own  place  of  execution, 
encountered  the  cart  and  those  in  charge  of  it, 
seeing  the  husband  who  had  passed  beneath  her 
window  a  few  minutes  earlier  living,  taken  from 
it  a  corpse — a  sight  to  her,  says  the  chronicler,  no 
less  than  death.  It  "  a  little  startled  her,"  observes 
another  narrator,  "  and  many  tears  were  seen  to 
descend  and  fall  upon  her  cheeks,  which  her  silence 
and  great  heart  soon  dried." l  According  to  a 
third  account,  she  addressed  the  dead. 

"Oh,  Guilford,  Guilford,"  she  is  made  to  ex- 
claim, "  the  antepast  that  you  have  tasted  and  I 
shall  soon  taste,  is  not  so  bitter  as  to  make  my 
flesh  tremble  ;  for  all  this  is  nothing  to  the  feast 
that  you  and  I  shall  partake  this  day  in  Paradise." 

It  had  been  ten  o'clock  when  Guilford  had  left 
his  prison.  By  the  time  that  the  first  act  of  the 
tragedy  was  over,  a  scaffold  had  been  erected  upon 
the  green  over  against  the  White  Tower,  and  led 
by  the  Lieutenant,  the  chief  victim  was  brought 
forth,  "  her  countenance  nothing  abashed,  neither 
her  eyes  moisted  with  tears,"  2  as  she  moved  onwards, 
a  book  in  her  hand — the  same  she  gave  afterwards 
to  Sir  John  Bridges — from  which  she  prayed  all 

1  Life  and  Death  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  1615,  p.  30. 

*  Chronicle  of  Queen  Jane  and  Queen  Mary,  pp.  54-6.  The 
author,  "resident  in  the  Tower,"  was  doubtless  an  eye-witness  of 
the  scene. 


Lady  Jane's  Execution  323 

the  way  until  the  scaffold  was  reached.  With  her 
were  her  two  gentlewomen,  Elizabeth  Tylney  and 
Eleyn,  who  both  "  wonderfully  wept "  as  they 
accompanied  their  mistress  ;  and  Feckenham  was 
also  present,  her  kindly  opponent,  perhaps  even 
now  hoping  against  hope  that  success  might  crown 
his  efforts.  As  the  two  stood  together  at  the  place 
of  execution,  she  took  him  by  the  hand,  and, 
embracing  him,  bade  him  leave  her — desiring,  it 
may  be,  to  spare  him  the  sight  of  what  was  to 
follow.  Might  God  our  Lord,  she  said,  give  him 
all  his  desires  ;  she  was  grateful  for  his  company, 
although  it  had  given  her  more  disquiet  than,  now, 
the  fear  of  death.1 

Like  most  of  her  fellow-sufferers  she  had 
come  prepared  with  a  speech.  That  her  sentence 
was  lawful  she  admitted,  but  reasserted  the  absence 
on  her  part  of  any  desire  for  her  elevation  to  the 
throne,  "  touching  the  procurement  and  desire  there- 
of by  me  or  my  half,  I  do  wash  my  hands  in 
innocency  before  God  and  the  face  of  you,  good 
Christian  people,  this  day,"  and  therewith  she  wrung 
her  hands,  in  which  she  had  her  book  ;  proceeding 
to  make  confession  of  the  faith  in  which  she  died, 
owning  that  she  had  neglected  the  word  of  God, 
and  loved  herself  and  the  world,  and  thereby 
merited  her  punishment.  "And  yet  I  thank  God 
that  He  hath  thus  given  me  time  and  respite  to 

1  Rosso,  Succesi  cT Inghilterra,  etc.,  pp.  57,  58. 


324  Lady  Jane  Grey 

repent.  And  now,  good  people,  while  I  am  alive, 
I  pray  you  to  assist  me  with  your  prayers." 

After  this,  kneeling  down,  she  turned  to  Fecken- 
ham,  who  had  not  availed  himself  of  her  suggestion 
that  he  should  leave  her. 

"  Shall  I  say  this  psalm  ?  "  she  asked  him  ;  and 
on  his  assenting  repeated  the  Miserere  in  English, 
before,  rising  again,  she  prepared  for  the  end,  giving 
her  book  to  Bridges,  brother  to  the  Lieutenant, 
who  stood  by,  and  her  gloves  and  handkerchief  to 
one  of  her  ladies.  "With  her  own  hands  she  untied 
her  gown,  rejecting  the  aid  of  the  executioner,  and, 
turning  to  her  maids  for  assistance,  removed  her 
"  frose  paast " — probably  some  kind  of  head-dress — 
let  down  her  hair,  throwing  it  over  her  eyes,  and 
knit  a  "fair  handkerchief"  about  them. 

After  kneeling  for  her  forgiveness,  the  executioner 
directed  her  to  take  her  place  on  the  straw. 

"  Then  she  said, 

"  '  I  pray  you  despatch  me  quickly.' 

"  Then  she  kneeled  down,  saying, 

"  '  Will  you  take  it  off  before  I  lay  me  down  ? ' 

"And  the  hangman  answered  her, 

"  (  No,  madame.' ' 

The  handkerchief  was  bound  about  her  eyes, 
blinding  her. 

"  What  shall  I  do  ?  "  she  said,  feeling  for  the 
block.  "  Where  is  it  ?  " 

Then,  as  some   one    standing   near   guided   her, 


Lady  Jane's  Execution  325 

she  laid  down  her  head,  and  saying,  "  Lord,  into 
Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit,"  met  the  blow 
of  the  executioner. 

Thus  died  Lady  Jane  Grey,  most  guiltless  of 
traitors ;  who,  to  quote  Fuller's  panegyric,  pos- 
sessed, at  sixteen,  the  innocency  of  childhood,  the 
beauty  of  youth,  the  solidity  of  middle,  and  the 
gravity  of  old,  age  ;  who  had  had  the  birth  of  a 
princess,  the  learning  of  a  clerk,  the  life  of  a  saint, 
and  the  death  of  a  malefactor. 


INDEX 


Annebaut,  Admiral  d',  French 

ambassador,  33 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  222,  236,  240, 

241,  242,  247,  249-51,  253, 

262,  287 

Ascham,  Roger,  141-4,  152 
Ashley,     Katherine,     Princess 

Elizabeth's  governess,  88-91, 

no,  115,  116 
Ashridge,    Princess    Elizabeth 

at,  294 

Askew,  Anne,  Trial  and  execu- 
tion of,  36-41 
Aylmer,    John,    Lady     Jane's 

tutor,    143,    149,    150,    152, 

154-7,  165 

Baker,  Sir  Richard,  204 
Barnes,  Dr.,  burnt,  6 
Bath,  Earl  of,  231 
Baynard's  Castle,  Meeting  at, 

240 

Bel  Savage  Inn,  Wyatt  at,  309 
Berkeley,   Sir  Maurice,  Wyatt 

surrenders  to,  309 
Bloody  Statute,  The,  4 
Bodoaro,  Venetian  ambassador 

to  Charles  V.,  198 
Bonner,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  London, 

32.  38,  175.  255,  256 


Borough,  Lord,  Katherine 
Parr's  first  husband,  19 

Bradgate  Park,  25  seq. 

Brandon,  Charles,  Duke  of 
Suffolk,  24 

Bret,  Captain,  296 

Bridges,  Sir  John,  Lieutenant 
of  the  Tower,  300,  310,  317, 

3i8 

Bromley,  Sir  Thomas,  204 
Browne,  Sir  Anthony,  61,  166, 

261,  321 

Bucer,  the  reformer,  150,  151 
Bullinger,  Henry,  145-55,  161, 

165,  179,  180,  211 
Burgoyne,  159 

Calvin,  159 

Cecil,     Secretary,      160,     179, 

227,  240 
Charles  V.,  The  Emperor,  2, 49, 

176,  277,  288 
Cheke,    John,    Edward    VI. 's 

tutor,  22 
Clerkenwell,  Lady  Jane  visits 

Mary  at,  183 
Commendone,  the  Pope's  agent, 

262 

Comers,  Sieur  de,  290 
Courtenay,  Edward,  afterwards 


327 


328 


Index 


Earl  of  Devonshire,  255,  275- 
7,  280,  290,  292-4 
Cox,  Dr.,  tutor  to  Edward  VI., 

22 

Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 7,  8-10,  59,  62,  72,  131, 
I33»  135,  152,  153.  174,  281, 
282,  283,  284,  285 

Crofts,  Sir  John,  294 

Crome,  Dr.,  34 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  5  ;  execu- 
ted, 6,  7 

Culpeper,  Thomas,  n 

Darcy,  Lord,  240,  256 
Day,  Bishop,  175 
Denmark,  King  of,  277 
Denny,  Sir  Anthony,  58 

—  Sir  Philip,  310 
Deptford,  Wyatt  at,  297 
Diego,  Don,  229 

Dorset,  Marchioness  of,  after- 
wards Duchess  of  Suffolk. 
See  Suffolk 

Dorset,  Marquis  of,  afterwards 
Duke  of  Suffolk.  See  Suffolk 

Dudley,  Lord  Guilford,  married 
to  Lady  Jane  Grey,  196  seq  ; 
221,  222,  229,  237,  238,  283  ; 
attainted  and  sentenced, 
284-6,  289,  316,  320  ;  exe- 
cuted, 321,  322 

—  Sir  Ambrose,  284 

—  See  Warwick  and  Northum- 
berland 

Edward,  Prince,  afterwards 
Edward  VI.,  i  ;  education, 
22,  23  ;  relations  with  Lady 
Jane,  28  ;  and  with  Eliza- 
beth, 29  ;  his  coronation,  62  ; 
his  uncles,  83-85 ;  134-8  ;  162, 


163,  169-71 ;  illness,  172 ; 
173  >  17S  5  religious  scruples, 
176  ;  dying,  189,  193,  194, 
199  ;  his  will,  202-7  5  death, 
209  ;  funeral,  256 

Egmont,  Count  of,  290 

Eleyn,  Lady  Jane  Grey's  atten- 
dant, 323 

Elizabeth,  Princess,  i,  13,  20, 
29  ;  Seymour  her  suitor,  70, 
71  ;  73,  78  ;  relations  with 
Seymour,  88-91  ;  95,  108 
seq.  ;  155,  156  ;  set  aside  by 
Edward's  will,  203  ;  enters 
London  with  Mary,  253-5  ; 
278,  279  ;  at  Mary's  corona- 
tion, 280,  281  ;  283  ;  292,  294 

Eyre,  Christopher,  122 

Feckenham,  Dr.,  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  312,  314,  315,  316, 

323>  324 
Fitzpatrick,  Barnaby,  23,  162, 

172,  208 

Florio,  Michel  Angelo,  192,  245 
Fowler,  John,  85 
Fuller,  quoted,  69,  159,  325 

Gage,  Sir  John,  Constable  of 
the  Tower,  263,  305,  306 

Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winches- 
ton,  7,  13,  1 6,  32,  39,  42  seq.  ; 
60,  64,  175,  255,  262,  286, 
287,  288,  313,  314 

Garrard,  burned,  6 

Gates,  Sir  John,  204,  215,  256  ; 
sentenced,  263,  265  ;  exe- 
cuted, 266 

Grey,  Lady  Jane,  2,  23  ;  child- 
hood and  education,  26 ; 
relations  with  her  cousins, 


Index 


329 


28-30 ;  consigned  to  Sey- 
mour's custody,  67  seq.  ;  her 
parents'  severity,  69  ;  with 
Queen  Katherine  '  Parr, 
77  seq.  ;  reclaimed  by  her 
parents,  100-104  ;  sent  back 
to  Seymour,  105-107  ;  166  ; 
return  to  Bradgate,  139 ; 
interview  with  Ascham,  141- 
4  ;  intercourse  with  Protes- 
tant divines,  145-52  ;  love 
of  dress,  154;  155,  156,  165  ; 
visits  Mary,  173  ;  letter  to 
Bullinger,  178,  179  ;  visit  to 
Mary,  183  ;  at  Tylsey,  188  ; 
her  eulogists,  190,  191  ; 
Florio's  description  of  her, 
192  ;  her  marriage,  196  seq,  ; 
made  Edward's  heiress,  203, 
seq.  ;  receives  the  news,  212, 
217-220  ;  at  the  Tower,  220  ; 
quarrels  with  Guilford  Dud- 
ley, 221,  222  ;  proclaimed, 
223  ;  her  reign,  225  ;  begs 
that  her  father  may  remain 
in  London,  232  ;  takes  leave 
of  Northumberland,  233  ; 
deposed,  244-6  ;  returns  to 
Sion  House,  ibid.  ;  264  ;  her 
fate  uncertain,  269,  270,  271  ; 
conversation  in  the  Tower, 
271-4;  letter  to  Hardinge 
279,  280  ;  attainted,  284  ; 
tried  and  sentenced,  285  ; 
indulgence  shown  her,  289  ; 
295  ;  her  fate  sealed,  311  ; 
interviews  with  Feckenham, 
312,  314-16  ;  her  written 
farewells,  317-19  ;  refuses  to 
see  Guilford  Dudley,  320, 
321  ;  meets  his  body,  322  ; 
her  execution,  323-5 


Grey,  Lady  Katherine,  196 ; 
Lady  Jane's  letter  to,  319 

—  Lord  John,  293,  316 

—  Lord  Leonard,  293 

—  See  Suffolk 

Haddon,  James,  148,  149,  165, 

179-83 
Hardinge,  Lady  Jane's  letter  to, 

279,  280 

Harper,  Sir  George,  296,  301 
Harrington,    Lord     Seymour's 

servant,  67,  68,  104 
Hastings,  Lord,  196 

—  Sir  Edward,  298 
Heath,  Bishop,  175 

Henry  VIII.,  King,  i  seq.  ;  34, 
35,  36  ;  displeased  with  his 
wife,  44  seq ;  reconciled  with 
her,  47  ;  dying,  48  ;  death, 
56  seq. 

Herbert,  Lady,  43,  45,  75 

—  Lord,  of  Cherbury,  quoted, 

44 

Hertford,  Lord,  son  of  the  Pro- 
tector, 87,  1 06 

—  See  Somerset 

Hoby,  Sir  Philip,  228,  229,  313 
Hooper,  Bishop,  149 
Howard,  Sir  William,  308 
Hunsdon,  Mary  at,  184 
Huntingdon,  Earl  of,  218,  256 
Huyck,  Dr.  Robert,  98 

Jerningham,    Captain    of    the 

Guard,  297,  309 
Jerome,  burned,  6 

Katherine,  Queen,  of  Aragon,  3 

—  Howard,  Queen,  10,  u,  12 

—  Parr,  Queen,  12;    marriage 
to  Henry,  13  ;    her  past,  14, 

22 


33° 


Index 


15  ;  as  Queen,  17  seq.  ;  Pro- 
testant sympathies,  41  ;  plot 
against  her,  43  seq.  ;  her 
escape,  47  ;  Queen-dowager, 
65  ;  marriage  to  Lord  Sey- 
mour, 69-77  ;  married  life, 
80  seq.  ;  illness  and  death, 
96-9 
Kett's  Rebellion,  130,  232 

Laing,  Count  of,  290 

Lane,  Lady,  Katherine  Parr's 

cousin,  43,  45 
Latimer,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 

5,  6,  94,  129,  130,  281,  282 

—  Lord,   Katherine  Parr's  se- 
cond husband,  18 

Lee,  Sir  Richard  a,  1 3 1 
Lovell,  Thomas,  236,  251 

Maeterlinck,  quoted,  78 
Mary  Stuart,  i,  2,  128 

—  Tudor,  Princess,   afterwards 
Queen,  i,  13,  18,  19,  29-32, 
59.    73.    76,    155  ;     quarrels 
with  Council,  174-7  »  visited 
by  Ridley,  184-6  ;  set  aside 
in  Edward's  will,  203  ;  plot 
against,    214;    escape,    215, 
216 ;     at   Kenninghall,    226, 
227  ;      popular     enthusiasm 
for,  230,  231  ;  successful,  238 
seq.  ;    proclaimed,   242,  247, 
248  ;     enters    London,    25*3, 
254  ;  at  the  Tower,  255  ;  256, 
258,  268,  269-71  ;    marriage 
question,  275  seq.  ;    corona- 
tion,    280,      281  ;      Spanish 
match,    286    seq.  ;      at    the 
Guildhall,  299  ;  conduct  dur- 
ing  Wyatt's   Rebellion,   300 
seq.  ;  311,  313,  314 


Mary  of  Lorraine,  Queen- 
Do  wager  of  Scotland,  156, 165 

Michele,  Venetian  ambassador, 
198 

Montagu,  Sir  Edward,  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas, 
204,  205,  206 

Morysine,  Sir  Richard,  228,  229 

Newhall,  Mary  and  Lady  Jane 
at,  173 

Noailles,  French  ambassador, 
i93»  I94»  207,  208,  243,  276, 
279,  280,  281,  296 

Norfolk,  Duke  of,  52  ;  impri- 
soned, 55  ;  159,  255,  259,  296, 
297 

Northampton,  Earl  of,  at  first 
Lord  Parr,  16,  93,  106,  158, 
204,  255,  259,  269 

Northumberland,  Duchess  of, 
212,  218,  222,  228 

—  Duke  of,  at  first  Earl  of 
Warwick,  82,  128,  132,  133, 
145,  157  ;  his  unpopularity, 
160  ;  161,  164,  169,  170,  171  ; 
his  schemes,  189,  190,  193, 
194,  i95»  196,  197 ;  200 ; 
his  character,  201  ;  dictates 
Edward's  will,  202,  203,  205, 
206  ;  207,  208,  212  ;  his  con- 
spiracy, 215,  216;  at  Sion 
House  with  Lady  Jane,  218 
seq.  ;  commander  of  the 
forces,  232-6 ;  fall  and 
arrest,  247-51  ;  trial  and 
sentence,  259  seq.  ;  recanta- 
tion, 263  ;  execution,  266  ; 
burial,  268  ;  discussed  by 
Lady  Jane,  272,  273 

Ormond,  Earl  of,  297 


Index 


Owen,  Dr.,  209 

Paget,  Lady,  72 
—  Secretary,  72,  131,  132,  133, 

135  ;  247 

Palmer,  Sir  Thomas,  262,  266, 

267,  268 

Parkhurst,  Rev.  John,  98 
Parr,  Lord.     See  Northampton 
Parry,     Princess      Elizabeth's 

Cofferer,  88,  114,  115,  116 
Partridge's      lodging     in     the 

Tower,  Lady  Jane  at,  271  seq. 
Pellican,  Conrad,  147 
Pembroke,   Earl  of,    196,   218, 

222,    238,    241  ;     proclaims 

Mary,  242  ;   243,  306,  307 
Petre,  Secretary  of  the  Council, 

240 
Philip,   Prince   of   Spain,    277, 

286,  291,  292,  293 
Piedmont,  Prince  of,  277 
Pinkie,  Battle  of,  128 
Pole,  Cardinal,  275 
"  Poor  Pratte,"  230 
Portugal,  Infant  of,  277 
Powell,  Dr.,  hanged,  6 
Poynings,  Sir  Nicholas,  300 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  quoted,  i, 

58 
Renard,  Simon,  imperial  envoy, 

270,  286,  287 
"  Resident  in  the  Tower,"  The, 

271  seq. 

Rich,  Lord  Chancellor,  159,  160 
Richmond,  Duchess  of,  52,  53 
Ridley,    Bishop,    1 84-6 ;     239, 

252,  281 
Russell,  Lord,  Privy  Seal,  113 

Sandys,    Dr.,    Vice-Chancellor 
of  Cambridge,  248,  249 


Seymour,  Sir  Thomas,  Lord 
Admiral,  afterwards  Lord 
Seymour  of  Sudeley,  13  r 
Katherine  Parr's  lover,  14, 
15,  17  ;  opposes  his  brother, 
64  ;  obtains  Lady  Jane's 
custody,  66,  67,  68  ;  is  suitor 
to  Elizabeth,  70,  71  ;  marries 
Katherine  Parr,  72-7;  8iy 
82,  83  seq.  ;  relations  with 
Elizabeth,  88-91  ;  his  wife's 
death,  96  seq.  ;  again  Eliza- 
beth's suitor,  108  seq.  ;  in  the 
Tower,  117,  122,  123;  trial 
and  execution,  124,  125 

—  See  Somerset 
Shaxton,  Nicholas,  40 
Shrewsbury,  Earl  of,  242 

Sion  House,  Lady  Jane  at,  213; 

seq. 
Somerset,  Duchess  of,  82,  83, 

136,  255 

—  Edward  Seymour,  Duke  ofr 
at  first  Earl  of  Hertford,  13  ; 
rivalry    between    him    and 
Surrey,  50  seq.  ;    Lord  Pro- 
tector,   6 1  ;     and    Duke    of 
Somerset,  63  ;    campaign  in 
Scotland,     64 ;      dissensions 
xvith  his  brother,  64,  65  ;  71, 
8 1,  82,  83,  84  ;  92,  96,  109  ; 
his  wealth,   127  ;  in  danger, 
130  seq.  ;  prisoner,  135  ;  par- 
doned,   136  ;    in  the  Tower, 
157  seq.  ;   trial,  161  ;    execu- 
tion, 165,  166,  167  ;  his  spoils, 
197,  213 

Southwell,  Sir  Richard,  307 

Sudeley  Castle,  80,  93 

Suffolk,  Duchess  of,  at  first 
Marchioness  of  Dorset,  Lady 
Jane  Grey's  mother,  24,  27, 


332 


Index 


36,    102,    lOJ,    105,    142,     145, 

148,  218 

Suffolk,  Duke  of,  at  first  Mar- 
quis of  Dorset,  24,  62,  67,  68, 
100-7, 142, 148 ;  created  Duke, 
178;  179,  231,  232,  233,  242, 
243,  244,  245,  252,  253,  293, 
295.  3i6,  317 

Surrey,  Henry  Howard,  Earl 
of,  48  seq.  54 ;  trial,  55  ; 
execution,  56 

Sydney,  Lady,  213 

Throckmorton  House,  215 

—  John,  321 

—  Lady,  243,  244 

—  Sir  Nicholas,  in,  202,  215, 
216,  243  note 

Traheron,  152 

Tudor,  Mary,  daughter  of 
Henry  VII.,  24 

—  See  Mary 

Tunstall,  Bishop  of    Durham, 

255 

Tylney,  Elizabeth,  323 
Tyrwhitt,  Lady,  43,  97,  98,  112, 

1 20,  121 


Tyrwhitt,  Sir  Robert,  112,  118, 
119,  120,  121 

Ulmis,  John  ab,  146,  147,  153, 
161,  180 

Underhyll,  Edward,  the  "  Hot- 
Gospeller,"  243,  302-5 


Warwick,  Earl  of.  See  North- 
umberland 

—  Earl  of,  son  to  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  249,  259, 
265,  268,  269 

Weston,  Dr.,  298 

Wharton,  Sir  Thomas,  186 

Wightman,  Sir  Thomas  Sey- 
mour's servant,  in 

Winchester,  Marquis  of,  221, 
239,  240,  256 

Wriothesley,  Chancellor,  and 
afterwards  Earl  of  Southamp- 
ton, 16,  32,  40,  47,  60,  61 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  rebel 
leader,  293,  295  seq. ;  307,  309, 
310 


Printed  by  Haeell,  Watson  <S=  Vincy,  Ld.,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


55  A 


000666320    7 


